1 dead, several injured in Alberta tent collapse

One person was killed and others were hurt when an event tent collapsed on hundreds of people north Edmonton on Wednesday.

Severe weather caused the tent to collapse around 5:30 p.m. at Tu Viện Tây Thiên, also known as the Westlock Meditation Center, north of Busby and south of Westlock, RCMP say.

Mounties did not know the total number of people injured.

They said several were taken to local hospitals by EMS.

Both RCMP and Occupational Health and Safety are investigating.

The meditation centre was set to host a retreat starting Thursday until Aug. 11.

Thursday morning, about 1,000 residents in the surrounding rural area were without power after it went out Wednesday afternoon or evening. In the Legal area, crews were making “emergency repairs,” Fortis Alberta said on its website. Heavy winds were listed as the reason for at least one outage in the Gibbons area to the east. Power was expected to come back online between 1 and 3 p.m., Fortis estimated. 

This is a developing story. More to come…