A Canadian soldier was killed this morning in shootings that forced police to lock down Parliament and hustle the country's prime minister to a safe location.
Police are searching for two suspects after one was "dealt with," according to a spokesman for the Ottawa police. Officials later said that male suspect was killed.
The gunfire prompted security force to take Prime Minister Stephen Harper to a "safe" place not at Parliament Hill, his spokesperson said. Harper's usual office is in a building near the shooting site.
"The prime minister is safe and not on Parliament Hill and being briefed by security officials," his spokesman Jason MacDonald said.
Ottawa Police said via Twitter the initial shooting took place at 9:52 a.m. at the National War Memorial of Canada, but that was just the beginning of the violent episode, which has now stretched into investigations in at least one other location: Parliament Hill. A nearby shopping mall, the Rideau Centre, was subsequently evacuated.
Ottawa Police Constable Marc Soucy told Canada's CTV police were searching for more than one suspect and no one has been arrested, and later said there was believed to be three suspects.
Civic Hospital in Ottawa, the country's capital, received three patients, two of whom are in stable condition.
Earlier today witnesses told CTV they saw a man with long hair carrying a rifle and heard four shots fired at the soldier, who was guarding Canada's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The soldier later died of his wounds.
Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/AP Photo
PHOTO: A Royal Canadian Mounted Police intervention team responds to a reported shooting at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada Oct. 22, 2014.
A witness told Canada's CBC the gunman then ran the short distance to Canada’s Parliament, jumped a wall, stopped a car at gunpoint and hijacked it, the witness said. The driver got out safely, then the man drove the car to the Centre Block on Parliament Hill where senior government leaders have their offices.
A CBC reporter inside the Canadian Parliament reported chaos there, hearing lots of gunshots. A lawmaker tweeted more than 30 shots were heard inside Parliament's Center Block.
All military bases in Canada have been put on lock down in response to the events in Ottawa, CTV reported. The U.S. Embassy in Ottawa recently followed suit.
Senior FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials told ABC News they are closely monitoring the situation. The White House said President Obama has been briefed.
Canada raised its national terrorism alert level today, following an incident Monday in which a Canadian soldier was killed in a hit-and-run by a man suspected to have been a radicalized jihadist.
"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, according to AFP.
ABC News' Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.
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