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Canada mosque shooting: Multiple deaths at Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre

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Quebec: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has reiterated his support for Muslims and for diversity, after gunmen opened fire in a Quebec City mosque during evening prayers killing at least six people and injuring another eight.

Heavily armed police entered the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre on Sunday evening local time, after reports three gunman had opened fire on about 40 worshippers.

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Five dead in Quebec City mosque shooting

Six people are killed and eight injured after gunmen opened fire in a Quebec City mosque in Canada, during evening prayers.

Trudeau said the shooting was a "terrorist attack on Muslims".

"We condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims in a centre of worship and refuge," Trudeau said in a statement.

Police said two suspects had been arrested, but gave no more details into what prompted the attack, saying the investigation had just begun.

Initially, the mosque president said five people were killed in the shooting, and a witness said up to three gunmen had opened fire in the mosque. Police said only two people were involved in the attack.

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Police put up a security perimeter around the mosque, later confirming the situation at the mosque was "under control" with premises secured and remaining people evacuated.

"Why is this happening here? This is barbaric," the mosque's president, Mohamed Yangui, said.

Yangui, who was not inside the mosque when the shooting occurred, said he got frantic calls from people at evening prayers. He did not know how many were injured, saying they had been taken to different hospitals across Quebec City.

"This is deplorable," Yangui said . "I just got a call from the morgue asking me whether I could come in to identify five bodies."

Trudeau who has been critical of US President's Donald Trump stance on Muslims and refugees, called the shooting a "cowardly attack" and restated his welcoming stance on migration.

The reason for the attack is not yet known but incidents of Islamophobia have increased in Quebec in recent years.

In June 2016, a pig's head was left on the doorstep of the cultural centre.

Like France, Quebec has struggled at times to reconcile its secular identity with a rising Muslim population, many of them North African immigrants.

The face veil, or niqab, became a big issue in the 2015 national Canadian election, especially in Quebec, where the vast majority of the population supported a ban on it at citizenship ceremonies.

In 2013, police investigated after a mosque in the Saguenay region was splattered with what was believed to be pig blood.

In the neighbouring province of Ontario, a mosque was set on fire in 2015, a day after an attack by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris.

"These people go to their prayers peacefully every day but now some of them will never come back home from their prayers," Yangui said in French. "I'm shocked, I don't have words to describe how I'm feeling."

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard tweeted that the province was mobilising to assure the safety of Quebec City residents.

"Quebec categorically reject(s) this barbaric violence," Couillard wrote. "We offer our solidarity to the loved ones of the victims and the injured and their families."

The shooting came on the weekend that Trudeau said Canada would welcome refugees, after U.S. President Donald Trump suspended the U.S. refugee program and temporarily barred citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States on national security grounds.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said police were providing additional protection for mosques in that city following the Quebec shooting. "All New Yorkers should be vigilant. If you see something, say something," he tweeted.

'Not safe here'

"We are not safe here," said Mohammed Oudghiri, who normally attends prayers at the mosque but not on Sunday.

Oudghiri said he had lived in Quebec for 42 years but was now "very worried" and thinking of moving back to Morocco.

Mass shootings are rare in Canada, which has stricter gun laws than the United States, and news of the shooting sent a shockwave through mosques and community centers throughout the mostly French-language province.

"It's a sad day for all Quebecers and Canadians to see a terrorist attack happen in peaceful Quebec City," said Mohamed Yacoub, co-chairman of an Islamic community centre in a Montreal suburb. "I hope it's an isolated incident."

Zebida Bendjeddou, who left the mosque earlier on Sunday evening, said the centre had received threats.

"In June, they'd put a pig's head in front of the mosque. But we thought: 'Oh, they're isolated events'. We didn't take it seriously. But tonight, those isolated events, they take on a different scope," she said.

Bendjeddou said she had not yet confirmed the names of those killed, but added: "They're people we know, for sure. People we knew since they were little kids."

Reuters, AAP, DPA