Montreal daycare crash: Trudeau says attack 'unimaginable'

Mr Trudeau laid flowers at a memorial outside a church

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has said the deaths of two children at a daycare that police say was deliberately rammed by a bus driver was "unimaginable".

Mr Trudeau spoke as he attended a vigil on Thursday evening for the victims north of Montreal.

Two four-year-olds were killed in Wednesday morning's attack. About a dozen people were injured in the crash, including six children.

Two of the children have since been released from a hospital in Montreal.

The rest were in a stable condition and expected to recover.

"It's unimaginable," Mr Trudeau said outside the Elise Sainte-Rose-de-Lima church, speaking in both French and English.

"This is a moment to reflect on the incredible loss the families are feeling right now, on the hundreds of thousands of parents who dropped their kids off at daycares across the country this morning holding them a little tighter," he said, according to Canada's Global News outlet.

"All we can do is be there for each other and that's what people in this community, that's what people across the country do," he added, CTV reported.

Residents have set up a memorial outside the daycare to honour the victims

Quebec Premier Francois Legault visited the crime scene earlier in the day to offer his condolences.

Mr Legault laid a wreath and spoke to parents and staff who worked at the Garderie Educative Ste-Rose daycare.

"There is nothing harder than losing a child," Mr Legault said. "How do we go on living? It's as serious as that."

Daycare centres across Quebec have hung white flags outside their doors in support of the victims' families.

Residents and police remain puzzled as to why the suspect attacked the busy daycare.

The defendant, identified by police as Pierre Ny St-Amand, 51, has been charged with first-degree murder.

A transit driver crashed a city bus into a daycare in a Laval suburb, north of Montreal, killing two children

He appeared in court via video conference on Wednesday afternoon from hospital, where he was reportedly undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.

Hamdi Ben Chaabane, an eyewitness, told reporters that the suspect got off the bus after the crash, removed his clothes and began shouting incoherently.

Mr Chaabane added that some people were helping children who were trapped underneath the vehicle's wheels and inside the daycare before first responders arrived.

The suspect had been employed as a bus driver by the local public transit system for 10 years, and has no criminal record or incidents of note on his file.

Nor had the suspect previously sought out any psychiatric or mental healthcare, according to public health records.