much if we apprecia much. we appreciate it. there s also some other breaking news to the north, in toronto, where an unknown number of pedestrians have been struck by a vehicle. we have former fbi profiler, clint van zandt joining us now on the phone. clint, what do we know so far? there aren t so many details, just that a fan struck a number of people and obviously that sort of thing puts people on high alert in this day and age. well, i think what puts us on high alert, too, is that the van allegedly struck people and then fled the scene. so is this someone who just made a terrible mistake and ran or is this, as we ve seen, across the world the last couple of years, where international groups have adopted instead of hijacking planes, they hijack or use a truck, ram it into people, and attempt to flee from the area. that s you know, this is a fast-breaking story right now. but once again, the authorities in canada are going to have eyewitness to talk to, as well
as hopefully surveillance camera footage that should give them the vehicle, perhaps an idea who was in it, and most important, a license plate so they can start tracking it down. and we have live pictures from overhead. i believe it looks like actually the helicopter might be going to refuel, because we don t see the scene any longer. but again, this happened in toronto. we believe, just in the last hour or so, here s some playback video of the scene. this is police officers surrounding the corner and hopefully if he pans down, we can see the actual scene of the incident. right here, a van, as you can see. a number of cordoned off areas. there are first sporresponders, you can imagine. eight to ten people possibly struck according to early reports, clint. just in the last couple of years, since 2016, we ve seen one, two, three, four, five, six, seven of these attacks.
actually rode into the road. at that point, i ran into the middle of the road and stopped all the cars. and then pandemonium broke lose. everything went crazy. i stayed with the man to make sure he was okay and make sure no other cars drove over him. was he okay? he was conscious. his eyes were close and he couldn t move, but he hung in there. i hope he s all right. the officers asked he to come up to the intersection to see if anybody else had been hit. i saw three or four bodies lying on the ground. other people were getting cpr, i had to go back and relay that information to him. i hung out with the cops for about half an hour and gave some witness information. can you tell me what the scene looked like when you were walking through it? it was just clear as day, just an ordinary day, walking and just saw the guy get hit by a van. that was it. pieces of the van went flying everywhere. like i said, i turned my head to make sure there were no cars coming to make sure he didn t
that was done by accident. obviously, if you have an accident, usually you stay on the scene, especially if you heard some people. then again, we have no idea what the person s frame of mind was, we just don t know. back in 2014, in ottawa, involving an individual who had switched to islam, he actually used that as motivation for his attack using a weapon, but also a vehicle. obviously, this is in toronto, but it brings back the whole concept or concern that perhaps there are folks, individuals, who want to take action into their own hands in the canadian countryside, in these cities. obviously, we don t know enough, but the fact they did flee the scene could be the result of panic or the fact that he tried
authorities are going to find out very quickly. if it s an intentional act, they have to consider, is there a follow up? is this a one-to type of punch? if intentional, is there someone else? is this individual going to do the same thing some place else? is there any other act to follow? that s why they have to move very quickly on this to identify the vehicle, identify the driver, and of course, identify the motive, be it accident or intentional. we have a little bit of information from a witness on the scene. a man named simon tamasabajad, i believe is how you pronounce it. he said, 20 minutes before the accident, i m on the street canvassing, running for local off here is. yonge street is huge. right now there are pedestrians lying on the ground on the west side of the street. the fire hydrants had been knocked over. i spoke to a couple of witnesses who said this person bulldozed