A lockdown has ended on Parliament Hill after a man “barricaded” himself inside the East Block, Ottawa police say.
“The barricaded man call at East Block has ended without incident. One man is in custody,” Ottawa police said in a social media post shortly before 11 p.m. ET on Saturday. The post also said the criminal investigation is ongoing and an update will be provided in the morning.
Earlier at 7:30 p.m. ET, Insp. Mark Bouwmeester told reporters that “the circumstances of this incident are considered suspicious,” but he 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 would not say whether the man was believed to be armed or whether he had made threats.
Officers brought in a robot to deal with the situation, and a large police truck was ushered through the security roadblock.
People had been evacuated from the building, and police temporarily shut down a significant stretch of Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill, blocking traffic and pedestrians.
Hours after the lockdown began, police extended the exclusion zone from Wellington Street one block back to Sparks Street.
A government web page says the East Block houses the offices of senators and their staff, but there is little activity on the Hill because Parliament is dissolved for the ongoing federal election.
The same web page says the building once held the offices of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier,” and that it still contains “faithful recreations of the offices of its famous occupants from the 19th century.”
