Canada: Masked men storm movie theatres playing Hindi films, spray 'unknown substance'

Moviegoers watching Hindi movies in three Greater Toronto Area theatres were interrupted after masked men stormed into the cinema halls, spraying unknown substances inside the premises.

Several people were evacuated and later treated for getting exposed to an unknown substance.

One such incident happened around 9:20 pm Tuesday at a cinema complex in Vaughan, York Regional Police said in a statement on Wednesday.

People inside the movie halls began coughing after two masked men sprayed an “unknown, aerosol-based, irritating substance into the air” in a theatre, police said.

Officials said that around 200 people were watching a Bollywood movie when the incident occurred.

The suspects fled before police arrived. Police said the first suspect was a Black man with a light skin tone while the second man was described as brown with a light skin tone.

York Police said they were liaising with both Peel and Toronto police about similar incidents, CBC News reported.

Update: New suspect photos have been released after an unknown substance was sprayed in a Vaughan cinema on the evening of December 5th. Similar incidents occurred at other locations in Toronto and Brampton that same evening.

More details at this link:https://t.co/4KR4bxumFl pic.twitter.com/ERdtwdnc9l

— York Regional Police (@YRP) December 7, 2023

“Coincidentally, they took place all within less than three hours on the same evening,” a York Police officer said. “So we are certainly looking into the possibility these incidents are linked.”

Peel Police confirmed officers were called to a theatre in Brampton on Tuesday following reports of a substance sprayed on the premises.

Toronto Police said officers similarly got a call Tuesday night about someone setting off a “stink bomb” in a theatre at Scarborough Town Centre.

With inputs from PTI