'Bodies everywhere': Multiple people killed, injured at Lapu Lapu Day in Vancouver

Ottawa Citizen

27-04-2025

Article content
As of midnight, Fraser Street between 43rd and 46th remained closed to allow room for first responders to work.
Article content
Article content
Videos posted to social media show the immediate aftermath, with bodies strewn across the road, being tended to by first responders and bystanders. Victims were rushed to several local hospitals, where staff were told to prepare for mass casualties.
Article content
Yoseb Vardeh is the co-owner of the food truck Bao Buns, which had been stationed at the festival all day.
Article content
In a phone interview Saturday with Postmedia, Vardeh spoke through tears to describe what had been 'an incredible day' that ended in shock and terror.
Article content
'I didn't get to see the driver, all I heard was an engine rev. It didn't make any sense to me because there's still people here, like, it sounded like a car speeding. It didn't make any f—ing sense,' he said.
Article content
Article content
'And then I look up and there's people flying. It just happened so f—ing fast.'
Article content
Vardeh said the final performer had just ended and that many food trucks, including his, had stayed past the event's closing time to serve last-minute customers who were still enjoying the evening.
Article content
It was then that the truck, according to Vardeh, came from the direction of nearby John Oliver Secondary School, drove past a number of market vendors, and sped up before driving down 43rd Avenue, which had been turned into a pedestrian-only area flanked on both sides by food trucks.
Article content
'I got outside my food truck, I looked down the road and there's just bodies everywhere,' said Vardeh, as his voice broke. 'He went through the whole block, he went straight down the middle.'
Article content
Article content
Vardeh said he's unsure how the truck was stopped but said he saw a man being arrested and that police worked quickly to cordon off the area. Vardeh said the man being arrested was telling bystanders to stop filming him.
Article content
Article content
Vardeh, who is half Filipino and was attending the festival for his second year, told his staff to pack up and go home.
Article content
'I didn't break down until I got home to my family just five minutes ago,' he said. 'This is something that happens in the States, not here.
Article content
'I saw so many people, and they just couldn't believe what was happening. It was their wife, it was their mom, it was their kid,' he said. 'All these people were shocked, walking around and they didn't know what the f— to do.