At least five dead in Quebec City mosque shooting

QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) - Five people were killed after gunmen opened fire in a Quebec City mosque during evening prayers, the mosque's president told reporters on Sunday.

Earlier, a witness told Reuters that up to three gunmen fired on about 40 people inside the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center. Police put up a security perimeter around the mosque and declined to comment to reporters about the incident.

The mosque's Facebook page showed several live videos of the crime scene:

Local paper Le Soleil reported that there were two suspects, one of whom was armed with an AK-47.

Journalists, cititing a police report, said on Twitter that two suspects were in custody:

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

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.

In June 2016, there was a pig's head left on the mosque's doorstep with a note that read, "Bonne appetit," The Star reported. Many Muslims do not eat pork, and local police were investigating the incident.

Incidents of Islamophobia increased in Quebec in recent years amid a political debate over banning the niqab, or Muslim face covering. In 2013, police investigated after a mosque in the Saguenay region of Quebec was splattered with what was believed to be pig blood.

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