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Victim toll in Canada's worst mass shooting rises to 23 - UPDATED

21 April 2020 07:29 (UTC +04:00)

The victim toll from the worst mass shooting in Canadian history has risen to 23 from previously reported 19, federal police said in a statement on Tuesday, APA reports citing Reuters.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have said they expected the number of victims to rise as they investigate the 16 crime scenes that were part of the spree of murders, several of which included burnt-out homes.

The gunman, who at one point masqueraded as an RCMP officer and also painstakingly disguised his car to look like a police cruiser, shattered the peace of rural communities in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia during a 13-hour rampage that started late on Saturday, authorities said on Sunday.

He was shot by police at noon on Sunday.

01:17/21-04-2020

The death toll from the worst mass shooting in Canadian history rose to 19, including a police officer and the gunman, Canadian police said on Monday, adding that they expected to uncover more fatalities from the weekend massacre in Nova Scotia, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The gunman, who at one point masqueraded as a policeman and also painstakingly disguised his car to look like a police cruiser, shattered the peace of rural communities in the Atlantic province during a 12-hour rampage that started late on Saturday, authorities said on Sunday.

“We’re relatively confident we’ve identified all the crime scenes,” Nova Scotia RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told reporters on Monday, but said that fires set at some of those sites, mostly residences, made the search for other victims difficult.

“We believe there may be victims still within the remains of those homes which burnt to the ground,” Leather said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police identified the gunman as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, who worked as a denturist. Police said they had yet to determine a motive.

Police said on Sunday they had ended the threat posed by Wortman, who was dead, but they would not confirm a report by the CTV network that the RCMP had shot him.