15:55 GMT - The attack comes just one day after Canada raised its national "terrorism" alert. The level was raised from low to medium after authorities said a man they believed to be "radicalized" struck two officers with his car Monday, but authorities said the heightened alert was not "the result of a specific threat."
"This level means that intelligence has indicated that an individual or group within Canada or abroad has the intent and capability to commit an act of terrorism," Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, a spokesman for the Public Safety Ministry said Tuesday.
The assailant in Monday's attack was identified as 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau, who was briefly detained at a Canadian airport last July when he sought to fly to Turkey, federal police said.
Police did not have enough evidence to charge him with seeking to join a terrorist group abroad and released him.
15:52 GMT - Police kill at least one of the shooters involved in the attack, according to CBC television and a politician who was inside the building. MP Maurice Vellacott tells AFP that House of Commons security has told one of his aides that a suspect had been killed inside.
15:42 GMT - The area remains on lockdown as police search for shooters, as many as three, on the roof of parliament.
Video footage posted online by the Globe and Mail newspaper showed police ducking for cover as they advanced along a stone hallway, loud gunfire echoing among the gothic columns.
The attack began when someone shot a solider at a war memorial outside the building and then ran inside. Police raced to seal off the building and the office of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was in the area. Harper left the scene and is "safe," his spokesman Jason MacDonald said.
The incident came two days after a 25-year-old driver ran over a soldier, killing him before being shot dead by police, in what the government said was a terrorist attack.
15:55 GMT – The attack comes just one day after Canada raised its national “terrorism” alert. The level was raised from low to medium after authorities said a man they believed to be “radicalized” struck two officers with his car Monday, but authorities said the heightened alert was not “the result of a specific threat.”
“This level means that intelligence has indicated that an individual or group within Canada or abroad has the intent and capability to commit an act of terrorism,” Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, a spokesman for the Public Safety Ministry said Tuesday.
The assailant in Monday’s attack was identified as 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau, who was briefly detained at a Canadian airport last July when he sought to fly to Turkey, federal police said.
Police did not have enough evidence to charge him with seeking to join a terrorist group abroad and released him.
15:52 GMT – Police kill at least one of the shooters involved in the attack, according to CBC television and a politician who was inside the building. MP Maurice Vellacott tells AFP that House of Commons security has told one of his aides that a suspect had been killed inside.
15:42 GMT – The area remains on lockdown as police search for shooters, as many as three, on the roof of parliament.
Video footage posted online by the Globe and Mail newspaper showed police ducking for cover as they advanced along a stone hallway, loud gunfire echoing among the gothic columns.
The attack began when someone shot a solider at a war memorial outside the building and then ran inside. Police raced to seal off the building and the office of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was in the area. Harper left the scene and is “safe,” his spokesman Jason MacDonald said.
The incident came two days after a 25-year-old driver ran over a soldier, killing him before being shot dead by police, in what the government said was a terrorist attack.