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Second suspect in Canada stabbings reported dead

The suspect sought by Canadian authorities in a weekend stabbing spree that killed 10 people has been arrested but suffered unspecified “medical distress” and died in hospital a short time later.

Official word that the four-day manhunt for Myles Sanderson, 30, ended with his death came during a late-night news conference on Wednesday (local time), hours after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported he had been taken into custody.

The RCMP said the arrest happened near the town of Rosthern, Saskatchewan, about 100 kilometres south-west of the area where one of the bloodiest acts of mass violence in the country’s history unfolded on Sunday.

Canada’s Global News agency, citing multiple law enforcement sources, later reported that Sanderson had surrendered to police and was taken away alive in an ambulance after a highway pursuit in which police rammed his vehicle off the road.

Global News said he died shortly afterward of unspecified injuries that authorities believe were self-inflicted.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said Sanderson “went into medical distress” shortly after he was detained. Emergency medical personnel on the scene attended to him and he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

She declined to answer questions about whether he might have consumed a drug or other substance that killed him, saying the cause of death would be determined by an autopsy.

His older brother and accused accomplice, Damien Sanderson, 31, was found slain on Monday in a grassy area of the James Smith Cree Nation.

Police were investigating whether the younger sibling might have killed his brother, and that he might have sustained an injury requiring medical attention.

Ms Blackmore said an emergency caller who reported seeing Myles Sanderson before his arrest indicated he appeared to have had a visible injury.

As well as the 10 victims killed on Sunday, 18 others were wounded in the rampage, which unnerved a country where instances of mass murder are rare.

Police said some of the victims appeared to have been targeted, while others were apparently random.

Authorities have offered no motive for the attacks, which occurred on the James Smith Cree Nation reserve, home to about 3400 people, and the nearby village of Weldon, about 300 kilometres north of the provincial capital of Regina.

With Myles Sanderson’s death, “we may never have an understanding of that motivation”, Ms Blackmore said.

Sanderson’s arrest came hours after new details about the victims and the circumstances of their deaths were brought to light by relatives.

During an emotional news conference, Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand revealed his sister, Bonnie Burns, 48, and his 28-year-old nephew, Gregory Burns, were stabbed to death in their front yard on the James Smith Cree reserve between on Sunday morning.

Ms Burns’ other three sons and two foster children were home at the time of the attacks.

“She was protecting her son. She was protecting these three little boys. This is why she’s a hero. She’s a true matriarch,” Mr Arcand said of his slain sister.

Dayson Burns, 13, was stabbed in the neck but survived. Another young boy in the home hid behind a high chair watching the violence unfold, Mr Arcand said.

-AAP

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