CALGARY -- The Calgary Police Service confirms one man has been apprehended following a disturbance call at a mosque in the city's northeast.
Emergency crews responded to the Akram Jomaa Islamic Centre in the 2600 block of 37th Avenue N.E. early Friday afternoon following reports a man brandishing a knife had entered the mosque.
Officers located and arrested the suspect. Investigators do not believe the incident was a hate crime.
Prayer leader Zouheir Osman was inside the mosque at the time.
"We started our weekly prayer and about 10 minutes into it I heard a noise in the back," Osman told CTV News.
"It was a man swinging a knife at the people in the prayers. I went, moved everyone out of the way and tried to calm him down. It took about three minutes to try and calm him down, he wouldn't calm down. He kept swinging the knife at us, especially me.
"I went to take him down and that's when the cops came in, took him down."
Osman says he does not know the man personally but the suspect is someone that he had seen at the mosque on previous occasions.
Adam Loria, EMS public education officer, confirms an adult male was transported from the scene to hospital with minor, non-life threatening injuries.
Police confirm the injured man was the suspect but officers used non-lethal tactics to disarm him.
