A driver who killed two people when he rammed a bus into a busy children’s nursery in Canada has been charged with first-degree murder.

Six children were injured in the crash – including some who became trapped under the vehicle – in Laval, near Montreal, on Wednesday morning.

Police believe the suspect, Pierre Ny St-Amand, 51, deliberately drove the bus into the nursery during the morning drop-off.

‘As of now, we don’t know the motive for the crime,’ said police spokeswoman Erika Landry.

A senior Canadian government official said the crash was not a terrorist act and did not pose a threat to national security.

The 51-year-old, who had been employed as a bus driver by the local public transit system for 10 years, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm.

While about a dozen others were injured, including the six children, police said they did not expect any more fatalities.

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A man who lives near the nursery said he rushed to the scene and that he and three parents managed to subdue the driver, who he said stepped out of the bus, removed all his clothing and started screaming.

Hamdi Benchaabane said: ‘The first thing he did was take off all his clothes after opening the bus door.

‘He was just yelling; there were no words coming out of his mouth.’

The daycare centre is located at the end of a driveway off a cul-de-sac.

There is a bus stop on the cul-de-sac, but the driver would have had to veer off the road and head down the long driveway to hit the building.

Mr Benchaabane said he and the others had to strike the driver to get him under control, before police handcuffed the man.The driver, he said, ‘was in a different world’.

Mr Benchaabane said he was able to help pull one child from the daycare centre, adding that he and the others tried to save a second child before firefighters ordered them to leave because pieces of the roof were at risk of falling.

‘It was a nightmare, I can’t believe it,’ he said of what he witnessed. ‘It was horrible.’

Aerial news footage from the scene showed the bus crashed into the front of the daycare centre.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his office was ‘following the situation closely’.

In a brief court appearance via video link, the suspect refused to speak during a hearing and was ordered by a judge to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

He appeared from a bed at a hospital in Montreal.

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