VANCOUVER Police shot dead a man in Downtown Eastside after he had stabbed three people with a knife.

Around 5 p.m., police responded to the First United Church at East Hastings and Gore Street after receiving reports that a man was stabbing people. When police arrived, they found the suspect wielding a knife outside of the church on Gore Street.

Officers attempted to take the suspect into custody without success and police fired multiple less lethal rounds from a bean bag shotgun in an attempt to control him. The suspect turned his attention to a woman who was standing nearby and began to stab her. Police shot the man. Paramedics attended to the man and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two men at the church were treated for non life-threatening injuries. The woman was rushed to hospital with serious injuries.

The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) was notified by the VPD.

Detectives from the Vancouver Police Major Crime Section are investigating the stabbings.