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Lone gunman kills Canadian soldier in Ottawa attack

– ‘Pop, pop, pop’ –

A member of parliament, Maurice Vellacott, told AFP that House of Commons security had told one of his aides the suspect had been killed inside parliament.

“I literally had just taken off my jacket to go into caucus. I hear this ‘pop, pop, pop’ — possibly 10 shots, don’t really know,” Liberal Party member John McKay told reporters outside.

“Suddenly the security guards come rushing down the hallways and usher us all out to the back of the parliament buildings,” he said, as lawmakers, staff and reporters scurried from the area.

Witnesses at the scene said they saw a man armed with a rifle running into parliament after shooting the guard at the war memorial.

Passers-by told reporters that a bearded man had gunned down the soldier and hijacked a passing vehicle to take him the short distance to Parliament Hill, on a bluff over the Ottawa River.

One witness, parliamentary aide Marc-Andre Viau, said he saw a man run past a caucus meeting, chased by police armed with rifles who yelled “take cover.”

That was followed by “10, 15, maybe 20 shots,” possibly from an automatic weapon, Viau said, adding: “I’m shaken.”

Police raced to seal off the parliament building and Harper’s office, pushing reporters and bystanders back and blocking roads.

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Harper was attending a meeting with lawmakers in parliament at the time but was quickly evacuated to safety, his spokesman Jason MacDonald said.

The confusion had the city and the nation on edge, while stocks in Toronto tumbled more than 200 points.

Local media reported that the suspect, raised in Laval, Quebec, about 10 miles (16 kilometres) from Montreal had an extensive criminal record, including robbery and drug charges to which he pleaded guilty.

A chilling photo of Zehaf-Bibeau circulated in the Canadian media, showing the assailant with long dark hair and a scarf over the lower half of his face aiming a rifle straight ahead.

Police did not say when it was taken, but confirmed local reports that it was the gunman in the photo.

Harper had been scheduled to bestow honorary Canadian citizenship on Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai on Wednesday in Toronto. The ceremony was to be rescheduled, his office said.

Meanwhile, parliament was to reopen for lawmakers Thursday, but remain closed to the public.

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