Suspect in Canada stabbing rampage dies after arrest

The last suspect in the stabbing spree in a remote western Canadian Indigenous community died after being arrested at the end of a long manhunt, local media said.

Several broadcasters and newspapers, citing unnamed police sources, announced 32-year-old Myles Sanderson's death, without giving details of the circumstances.

Earlier, police said Sanderson had been "located and taken into police custody." "There is no longer a risk to public safety relating to this investigation."

An hour before Sanderson's arrest, police issued an alert about a man armed with a knife in a stolen white Chevy Avalanche nearby, making a link to the stabbing case and urging locals to shelter in place.

It offered relief to a nation distressed by one of modern Canada's deadliest incidents of mass violence.

The manhunt had stretched across three provinces, and gone from Regina, Saskatchewan province's capital 300 kilometers to the south, and then back to the James Smith Cree Nation -- in response to reported sightings.

On Monday the search turned up the body of 31-year-old Damien Sanderson in a grassy field in the Cree community.

Authorities said he likely had been killed by his 32-year-old sibling, who remained a fugitive until his arrest near the town of Rosthern in Saskatchewan -- about 100 kilometres west of where the stabbings occurred.

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations said it was "relieved that Myles Sanderson is in police custody."