Police tactical units and bomb-sniffing dogs were seen outside the East Block building.
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Parliament Hill’s East Block was locked down Saturday after a man barricaded himself in the building, sparking a major police intervention that lasted for hours.
In a Saturday afternoon post on X, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) confirmed that a man had barricaded himself in the historic building just before 3 p.m. “There are no known injuries,” the OPS said.
The incident led to a significant police response involving agents from the Parliamentary Protective Service, the OPS and the RCMP, who locked down the building and surrounding area.
Dozens of police cars surrounded the building and the stretch of Wellington Street in front of the Parliamentary precincts was shut down to traffic and pedestrians. Hill employees were not allowed to enter the Parliamentary precinct.
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The East Block houses the offices of senators and their staff. As Parliament is not currently sitting, the building was likely mostly unoccupied.
Shortly after the suspect burst into the office building, PPS issued a rare alert ordering senators and their staff to “seek shelter in the nearest room. Close and lock all doors and hide.”
Shortly after, the same order was sent to Prime Minister’s Office and Privy Council Office staff in a building across to the street to do the same.
Roughly 15 minutes later, another memo ordered East Block occupants to evacuate, suggesting police quickly knew that the intruder did not pose a major threat to building occupants.
Numerous tactical units and bomb-sniffing dogs were seen outside the East Block building throughout the afternoon.
Within an hour of the alert, police deployed what appeared to be a bomb disposal robot towards the building. Later, two more such robots were deployed, but it was unclear if they were ever sent into East Block.
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Nearly five hours after the incident began, police had still not shared information about the intruder’s identity or apparent motive.
One police officer told National Post that the incident was not considered an active shooter situation.
Ottawa police Insp. Mark Bouwmeester told reporters at around 7:30 p.m. that “the circumstances of this incident are considered suspicious,” but gave few details about what was happening inside.
“We’re currently in contact with the individual and our priority is to resolve this situation peacefully,” he said. “At this time there is no known injuries and we believe that the man is the only person inside the building.”
Police remained in the area and Wellington Street was still cordoned off in front of Parliament Hill.
By 10 p.m. most of the reporters who had been at the scene had left, though. One camera and journalist remained at the intersection of Elgin and Sparks streets, just outside yellow police tape.
A worker walked outside D’Arcy McGee’s restauranta and bar asking if the live music echoing from speakers outside was too loud. It was turned off shortly after that.
But, if you didn’t first look at Wellington, you would have been hard-pressed to notice something out of the usual on Sparks. A delivery worker was stocking inside a cafe, a man walked his dog and groups of friends walked the strip or huddled outside to finish cigarettes or conversations.
With files from Paula Tran, Matteo Cimellaro and The Canadian Press
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