Saskatchewan stabbings: Canadian police says 10 dead, 15 injured in attacks

Fifteen people have been sent to hospitals after stabbings in multiple locations on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the village of Weldon, northeast of Saskatoon, police said. Early indications suggested the victims may have been attacked at random, but police have not provided a possible motive.

Damien Sanderson and Myles Sanderson, who are named by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as suspects in stabbings in Canada’s Saskatchewan province, are pictured in this undated handout image released by the RCMP September 4, 2022. (RCMP/Handout via REUTERS)

The search for suspects was waged as fans descended in Regina for a sold out annual Labor Day game between the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The Regina Police Service said in a news release that with the help of Mounties, it was working on several fronts to locate and arrest the suspects and had “deployed additional resources for public safety throughout the city, including the football game at Mosaic Stadium.

The alert first issued by Melfort, Saskatchewan RCMP about 7 a.m. was extended hours later to cover Manitoba and Alberta, as the two suspects remained at large. Damien Sanderson was described as five feet seven inches tall and 155 pounds, and Myles Sanderson as six-foot-one and 200 pounds. Both have black hair and brown eyes and may be driving a black Nissan Rogue.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority said multiple patients were being treated at several sites. “A call for additional staff was issued to respond to the influx of casualties,” authority spokeswoman Anne Linemann said in an email. Mark Oddan, a spokesman with STARS Air Ambulance, said two helicopters were dispatched from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and another from Regina.

Oddan said two carried patients from the scene to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, while the third carried a patient to Royal University from a hospital in Melfort, a short distance southeast of Weldon. Oddan said due to privacy laws, he could not disclose information about their ages, genders or conditions.