Six individuals, among them four children, tragically lost their lives in the Canadian capital of Ottawa late Wednesday, as confirmed by authorities on Thursday, unsettling a nation where instances of mass killings are uncommon.

Law enforcement promptly detained a man and clarified that the fatalities did not seem to be connected to domestic or intimate partner violence.

“The scene is a horrific one,” remarked police chief Eric Stubbs to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, refraining from disclosing details regarding the victims’ cause of death.

Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe, in a social media post, described it as “one of the most shocking incidents of violence in our city’s history.”

Ottawa, with a population of one million, reported 14 murders in 2023 and 15 in 2022. The victims, whose identities remain undisclosed, were discovered within a residence in the southwestern suburb of Barrhaven.

Police responded to emergency calls just before 11 pm on Wednesday, arriving at the scene as stated in their release.

Mass killings in Canada are rare occurrences. In December 2022, a man fatally shot five people in a Toronto suburb before being fatally shot by police.

In September of the same year, a man stabbed and killed 11 people in the western province of Saskatchewan. He succumbed to a cocaine overdose shortly after being apprehended by police.