Two young kids were killed when a man crashed a city bus into a day care outside Montreal Wednesday in what officials believe may have been an intentional act, authorities and a witness said.
Following the wreck in Laval, Quebec, the driver exited the bus, stripped down naked and began screaming incoherently as witnesses tackled him to the ground.
Neighbor Hamdi Benchaabane said the driver, Pierre Ny St-Amand, 51, appeared to be “in a different world.”
“He was just yelling; there were no words coming out of his mouth,” he said.
“He opened the door. He took off all his clothes. He was totally naked,” Benchaabane told CBC. “We don’t know why he did that. We dove on him. We tried to subdue him.”
Six other children were hospitalized with not life-threatening injuries from the crash that the city mayor believes as intentional.
“There is a theory that it was an intentional act, but that remains to be confirmed by the investigation,” Mayor Stephane Boyer said.
The ages of the victims were not revealed, but the CBC reported about 80 kids under 5-years-old attend the day care.
Police arrested the driver after a group of parents launched at him following the crash. He’s charged with homicide and reckless driving.
St-Amand was hit with nine charges, including two counts of first-degree murder.
A motive for the crash is unclear, said police spokesperson Erika Landry. The driver worked for Societe de transport de Laval for 10 years and had a clean criminal history and work record, officials said.
The day care is at the end of a long driveway off a cul-de-sac. While there is a bus stop on the street, the driver would have needed to veer off before colliding with the building.
Another eyewitness said there were no skid marks leading to the center.
“He went directly into the day care,” Mario Sirois said.
In the aftermath, the driver was hysterical and “his eyes were like popping out,” Sirois’ wife Ginette Lamoureux said.
Benchaabane told CBC a group of bystanders tried to pull kids from under the bus. While one lightly injured girl was reached, another girl couldn’t be reached from under the rubble, he said.
The harrowing scene was too much for officers to take, Laval Police Chief Pierre Brochet said, with some crying from the tragedy.
A senior Canadian government official told the AP the crash was not terrorism related.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his office was monitoring the situation.
With Post wires
