Gunmen attacks Canadian Parliament where Malala Yousafza is to receive award

Canadian Parliament was today placed under lockdown after an unknown gunman was reported to have shot dead a soldier at the National War Memorial before multiple gunmen fired dozens of shots inside the halls of Parliament in Ottawa. But police said there are 'two or three' gunmen inside the building and one of the gunmen has been killed reported Ottawa Citizen.

Ottawa police received a call at 9.52am that shots had been heard in Parliament, while journalists cowering inside said they heard dozens of rounds and could smell gunpowder in the hallways. After the building was placed on lockdown, police swarmed downtown Ottawa as other shootings were reported at the Rideau Centre mall and the Chateau Laurier Hotel.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Harper was safe and had left Parliament Hill.

He had been scheduled to give Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, her Canadian citizenship today.

The incident also comes just two days after two Canadian soldiers were run over - and one of them killed - in Quebec by a man with jihadist sympathies.