Protection Services News

Police officer wounded in shootout near London

An Ontario Provincial Police officer has been shot responding to a call in Seaforth, Ont., north of London.

There were no immediate details about the injury, or the age or gender of the officer involved.

Sgt. Pierre Chamberland, a spokesman for provincial police headquarters in Orillia, Ont., said the officer, who is from the Huron County detachment, was airlifted to hospital.

Reports suggested the officer exchanged several shots with an unidentified person, who was also airlifted to a medical centre.

Faith Weber, a resident of Brussels, Ont., was a witness to the shooting. She told told radio station CKNX that the officer and a suspect fired at each other across a road.

"The guy [was] laying in the ditch and the police officer was on the other side of the road in the ditch but he was standing up and they were both shooting back and forth at each other," she said. "When I was there, there was probably about five, six shots that already went off, and then we had to move back farther and then there was more shots going off."

OPP Commisioner Julian Fantino was reported to be on his way to London.

I hope the Constable is alright..