Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area Islamic cultural centre Friday afternoon.
The incident happened at around 1:40 p.m. at the Centre Culturel Musulman in Châteauguay, an off-island suburb of Montreal.
Châteauguay police got a 911 call reporting that a man had entered the building on Saint Jean Baptiste Boulevard with a knife and then got into an altercation with people who were inside.
The victims’ injuries are minor and their lives are not in danger, according to police spokesperson Nadia Grondin.
Police arrested the suspect, who is set to be questioned by investigators.
According to the cultural centre’s administrator, Rachid Amane, the suspect, who appeared to be in his 20s, entered the building and started acting suspiciously.
There were roughly 100 men, women, and youth inside the cultural centre at the time when prayers were stopped as several men approached the suspect.
The three men suffered injuries to their hands and one of them was wounded on his body when the armed man resisted them, Amane told CTV News. The man was detained until police arrived on scene.
Amane said this is not the first time there has been a violent incident at the centre. Nearly a decade ago, a suspected handmade explosive device was left there but it did not go off.
The administrator said he wasn’t aware of any specific threats leading up to the incident on Friday and believes the suspect, who did not say anything threatening, was acting alone.
With files from CTV Montreal’s Caroline Van Vlaardingen
– This story is breaking and will be updated.