Nine people, including seven adults and two young children, were found dead on Tuesday at three separate but apparently related crime scenes in what Edmonton's police chief called a "senseless mass murder."

Seven people were killed in one location and the eighth in another, police said, and a man linked to the crimes committed suicide in a nearby town. Chief Rod Knecht said the killings were the result of domestic violence.

"It is a tragic day for Edmonton, and our thoughts go out to the community as we all come to terms with the senseless mass murder of eight people," Knecht said at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Police said the first victim, a woman, was found in a house in the city's southwest. Later in the evening they were called to another private home to check on a man who "seemed depressed and overly emotional," Knecht said.

The man was not found, however, and police returned to the house just after midnight to find seven bodies. Then, a vehicle linked to the crime was located 19 miles northeast of Edmonton, in Fort Saskatchewan, a town of 22,000, where the suspect killed himself in a restaurant, police said.

None of the victims was identified, but Knecht said the public was not in danger.

"This series of events are not believed to be random acts," he said. "These events do not appear to be gang-related but rather tragic incidents of domestic violence."

"Our homicide investigators have established associations and linkages between these homicides," he said.

Police would not elaborate on the connection between the deaths.

Mass killings are nearly unheard of in Edmonton, a city of 878,000 people that had 27 homicides in 2013. Knecht said this incident was the worst mass killing in the city since 1956, when six people were murdered.

Al Jazeera and wire services