Six people have been shot, four people have been arrested and Ontario's police watchdog has been called in after two connected shooting incidents in Toronto on Thursday.



Police were called just before 6 p.m. ET to the Jane Street and Driftwood Avenue area in the city's northwest after gunshots were heard.



The officers discovered four men and one woman with apparent gunshot injuries. Investigators say the victims range in age from late 20s to early 40s.

Paramedics say one has life-threatening injuries, two suffered "very serious" wounds and the remaining two have minor injuries.

Police say that during the arrests, one of those arrested was shot "in an interaction with police." That person has non-life-threatening injuries.

Ontario's Special Investigation Unit (SIU), which probes all incidents involving police in Ontario that result in serious injury or death, has been called in. The SIU says a male was shot by police on Elmhurst Drive in Toronto near Islington Avenue and Rexdale Boulevard at about 6:15 p.m., as Toronto police were investigating a vehicle.

Elmhurst Drive is about eight kilometres west of Driftwood Avenue.

Many children near 1st shooting

Toronto police Sgt. Steve Hicks said there were many children in the area at the time of the first shooting. The incident took place near a high school and a community centre.

A police officer near the scene of the first shooting said many children were nearby at the time. (Galit Rodan/Canadian Press) Hicks said he was running a youth program at the centre when he heard a commotion and rushed to the scene, where he found the five people who were shot.

He said police know the five victims, whose names have not been released.



Brianna Mombourquette, 15, said the shooting happened right by the home where she lives with her family.



The teen said her sister ran downstairs and told the family she'd heard two gunshots and "someone saying, 'Get down, get down."'

Mombourquette said she went outside with her parents later but didn't see anything, though her father saw someone get loaded onto an ambulance and another person on the ground.

"I was scared and still am," she said.