Toronto, July 23 : A gunman, who opened fire at a busy Toronto restaurant strip injuring at least 14 people including a young girl, has been shot dead, Canadian police said.

The young girl, who had received critical injuries in the attack in the Danforth and Logan avenues area, on Sunday night has succumbed, the BBC reported.

The motive for the shooting is not clear yet, said police, who were appealing to witnesses for details.

Jeremy Cohn, a journalist with @globalnewsto, posted a footage from the scene, saying that "victims are spread across many blocks".

Jody Steinhauer told CBC News she was with her family in a restaurant in the area when she heard what sounded like 10 to 15 blasts of firecrackers. "We started to hear people scream out front," she said.

Some of the victims who were scattered across the ground for "many blocks", were treated at the scene, while others were taken to hospitals after the gunman dressed in black was seen firing his gun between 15 and 20 times.

The emergency services sent victims to trauma centres across the city just after the shooting started around 10 p.m. outside the restaurant on Danforth Avenue in Greektown, Toronto police Sergeant Glenn Russell told CNN.

Witnesses said they heard more than a dozen shots ring out from inside the busy restaurant. Paramedics confirmed to the media that the victims received "significant injuries" and one of them was a child.

Ten people were transported to various hospitals, including six to trauma hospitals, one to a paediatric trauma centre and one to another hospital, Toronto Paramedic Services told CNN partner CTV.

Fire Services was assisting with efforts, Toronto Fire Captain Adrian Ratushniak told CNN. 

The police said it has taken witnesses from the scene by bus to be interviewed at nearby police stations. Details of the incident were still sketchy.

The scene of the attack is about 14.5km from Yonge Street, where a motorist went on a ramming rampage on April 23, which left 10 people dead and another 15 injured.

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London/New Delhi: Professor Nitasha Kaul, a London-based academic, announced on May 18, 2025, via a social media post that her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card has been cancelled by the Indian government. She described the move as a "bad faith, vindictive, cruel example of transnational repression" intended to punish her for her scholarly work critical of the Modi government's policies concerning minorities and democracy.

The cancellation follows an incident in February 2024 when Professor Kaul, who holds a British passport and held an OCI card, was denied entry into India upon arrival at Bengaluru airport. She had been invited by the then Congress-led Karnataka state government to speak at a conference on "The Constitution and Unity in India."

According to an image of the letter shared by Professor Kaul, the Indian government stated that it had been "brought to the notice of the Government of India that you have been found indulging in anti-India activities, motivated by malice and complete disregard for facts or history." The letter further accused her of regularly targeting India and its institutions on matters of India's sovereignty through "numerous inimical writings, speeches and journalistic activities at various international forums and on social media platforms."

Professor Kaul, who is a Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster, London, vehemently rejects these accusations. She stated she had provided a 20,000-word response to what she termed the government's "ridiculous inanity about ‘anti-India’," but the OCI was cancelled through a "rigged process."

In her social media posts, Professor Kaul lamented the decision, questioning how the "mother of democracy" could deny her access to her mother in India. She characterized the action as stemming from "thin-skinned, petty insecurity with no respect for well-intentioned dissent."

The February 2024 denial of entry had already sparked controversy. At the time, immigration officials reportedly cited "orders from Delhi" without providing formal reasons, though Professor Kaul mentioned informal references to her past criticism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The Ministry of External Affairs had then responded by stating that the entry of foreign nationals into India is a "sovereign decision." Unofficial government sources had indicated that a "preventive lookout circular" was issued against her due to her alleged "pro-separatist" and "anti-India" stance on Kashmir.

The BJP in Karnataka had criticised the state government for inviting her, labelling her an "anti-India element." Conversely, the then-Karnataka government and various international human rights organizations and academic bodies had condemned the denial of entry.

Professor Kaul has been an outspoken commentator on Indian politics, including the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and has testified before international bodies such as the US Congress on human rights in the region. She maintains her work is academic and pro-democracy, not anti-India.

The cancellation of her OCI card effectively bars her from entering India, a country to which she has personal and academic ties. This incident adds to a growing list of academics, journalists, and activists of Indian origin whose OCI status has been revoked or who have been denied entry to India in recent years, raising concerns about freedom of speech and dissent. Reports indicate that over 100 OCI cards were cancelled by the Indian government between 2014 and May 2023. Furthermore, in 2021, new rules were introduced requiring OCI cardholders to obtain special permission for activities such as research and journalism.