Terror charges over Canadian truck attack

A Canadian man accused of deliberately running over five members of a Muslim family with his truck, killing four of them, now faces terrorism charges as well as counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Nathaniel Veltman, 20, was arrested shortly after the June 6 attack in a parking lot in London, Ontario, a short distance from the city's oldest mosque. He was wearing what appeared to be body armour and a helmet at the time, police said.

Due to a publication ban, details from a hearing in which Veltman appeared by Zoom on Monday from jail cannot be revealed. Veltman has not yet retained a lawyer.

However, provincial and federal prosecutors provided their consent to begin terrorism proceedings against him, alleging the killings of Salman Afzaal, his wife, their daughter and Afzaal's mother, and attempted killing of the couple's son constituted terrorist activity, police said.

The nine-year-old boy - the sole survivor of the attack - was released from the hospital on Monday, the London Free Press reported, citing a family friend.

The five members of the Afzaal family were out for an evening walk when they were run over on the footpath.

It was the worst attack against Canadian Muslims since a man gunned down six members of a Quebec City mosque in 2017.

Veltman is due in court again on June 21.