Canada IS sympathizer shot dead after setting off explosive

August 12, 2016 02:37

A Canadian man who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video was shot dead in a taxi after setting off an explosive device, police said on Thursday.

Aaron Driver, 24, was killed on Wednesday after a tip to Canadian authorities from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, who had intercepted the video, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told a press conference.

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana said that on Wednesday they had received information from the FBI, including "a martyr video that had been prepared by an individual who at that time was unknown to us but who was clearly in the final stages of preparing an attack using homemade bombs."

Based on the information received, police believed an attack was possible "within the following 72 hours" in an "urban center," Cabana said.

Police and counterterrorism experts quickly identified the man in the video as Driver.

Meanwhile, Toronto's transit system was alerted about a "credible terrorist threat," and security was beefed up along its network of subways, bus lines and street cars used by 1.8 million people a day.

The RCMP said they intercepted Driver in Strathroy, Ontario, about 220 kilometers southwest of Toronto, outside the home where he lived with his sister, at about 4:30 pm local time on Wednesday.

He had just gotten into the back seat of a taxi that had just arrived.

When police approached, Driver detonated an explosive device in the back seat of the cab, causing minor injuries to the driver, before he was shot dead by officers, authorities said.

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