Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say people in most of Lanark County and the Sharbot Lake areas southwest of Ottawa should stay inside and lock their doors and windows as officers search for two armed suspects.
An emergency alert was issued around 12:15 p.m. It requested people in those areas call 911 if they see suspicious people.
The suspects are Chase Lahaise and Lucas Young, two white men in their early 30s with blue eyes and short brown hair, police said in a tweet.
Police did not provide a description of the vehicle.
<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ontario?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Ontario</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CivilEmergencyAlert?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#CivilEmergencyAlert</a> in effect. Visit <a href=”https://t.co/BImohwHge4″>https://t.co/BImohwHge4</a> for more details <a href=”https://t.co/lD94LucJrU”>pic.twitter.com/lD94LucJrU</a>
—@OPP_ER
The English Catholic school board for the area says it has put all Lanark County schools in hold and secure mode.
The French Catholic Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est has also taken security measures at four schools.
OPP said around 12:45 p.m. that people around the Beckwith Recreation Centre no longer need to shelter in place as they had been asked them to do around 10:20 a.m., because “investigators believe the individual has left the area.”
The mayor of Carleton Place in Lanark County said around 12:15 p.m. police told him the alert does not affect that town.
Sharbot Lake is a village in Frontenac County, about 120 kilometres southwest of Ottawa.
Lanark County sits between Sharbot Lake and Ottawa. More than 75,000 people live in the county, which is just under 3,000 square kilometres in area, according to Statistics Canada.
More to come.
