15 injured in IED attack at Indian restaurant in Canada

Canadian police were using every resource to capture the two men responsible for a "horrendous" bomb attack on an Indian restaurant during birthday celebrations in this Toronto suburb that injured 15 people, regional police chief Jennifer Evans said on Friday.

While the investigation was in the early stages, there were no indications so far that the Thursday night attack at Bombay Bhel restaurant with an improvised explosive device (IED) was a terrorist or a hate crime, she said at a news conference near the restaurant.

"But we have not ruled out anything," she added.

Two birthday celebrations were taking place at the restaurant at the time of the attack, but fortunately no child was hurt, she said.

Mississauga has a South Asian population of about 175,000 or nearly 20 per cent of its population.

Evans described one attacker as "light-skinned" in his mid-20s and the other as "fair-skinned" and said both had the hood of their jackets pulled over their heads, wore baseball caps and had dark cloth covering their faces.

"I want to assure everyone that every police resource is being used right now to locate the people responsible for this horrendous act," she said.

Police across the Greater Toronto Area and the federal agency, the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, were looking for the attackers while an intelligence team was working behind the scene.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted that she was "in constant touch with our Consul General in Toronto and Indian High Commissioner in Canada".

"Our missions will work round the clock," she added.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, who was also at the news conference, said she had spoken to Consul-General Dinesh Bhatia.

"This is a heinous crime that has been committed. People who have done this need to answer for their crime and they need to be brought to justice," said Crombie.

The condition of three of the injured people, who were hospitalised at the Toronto Trauma Centre, was upgraded from critical to stable.

The other 12 injured, who ranged in age from 23 to 69, were taken to local hospitals and released after treatment.

She did not identify the victims, other than to say that of the three hospitalised one was a 35-year-old man from Brampton and the other two were two women from Mississauga, a 62-year-old and a 48-year-old woman.

Evans said no other bombs were found at the restaurant, which suffered extensive damage.

--IANS

al/soni/mr