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A gunman killed two people and injured two others during an early morning shooting spree, police in the Canadian province of British Columbia have said, BBC reported.

Emergency alerts issued shortly after 06:00 local time (13:00 GMT) warned of "multiple shooting scenes" in downtown Langley, a city about 25 miles east of Vancouver.

Police confirmed a lone suspect had been shot dead on the scene.

He is believed to have been targeting homeless people in the area.

The suspect and his victims will not be publicly identified until police have notified next-of-kin.

Sergeant David Lee, a spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said the series of incidents began at midnight and continued until early morning.

He said the attacker was an individual known to the police, but it was "too early" in the investigation to identify a motive.

Among the injured, a woman is in critical condition while a man sustained a serious injury to his leg. Both have been taken to Langley Memorial Hospital.

Earlier on Monday, police issued public service alerts to Langley residents - for only the second time ever - about "multiple reports of shots fired" in the city's downtown area as well as its neighbouring township.

Homicide investigators were dispatched to the scene, and police were seen setting up a forensics tent near a white vehicle that had cardboard covering up its license plate.

An unmarked black SUV riddled with bullet holes was also spotted near the shooting site, according to BBC.

Police said the gunman also appeared to have fired into buildings that were closed and unoccupied at the time.

"We had a tragedy this morning in our neighbourhoods," Mayor Val van den Broek said at a news conference.

She claimed the problem of homelessness was worse in British Columbia than other provinces, calling on elected officials at all levels to "do more" to address it.

Local homeless advocate Kim Snow told the Global News outlet that the victims were "suffering souls".

"They are just people that need a place to live," she said. "They need chances. They are not on the street by choice."

Nepal imported goods from 164 countries during the fiscal year 2021-22.

According to statistics unveiled by the Department of Customs today, Nepal imported goods worth over Rs 1,920 billion from those countries last fiscal year. The statistics show that Nepal purchased goods worth over Rs 1,200 billion from India alone while the export was worth Rs 155 billion.    

It means the country's trade deficit with India alone was over 1,044 billion in the last fiscal year.

After India, China is the second largest supplier to Nepal. Nepal imported goods worth over Rs 264 billion and the export goods worth Rs 887 million, resulting in a trade deficit of worth around Rs 264 billion.   

Trade deficit goes up

The country's trade deficit is increasing year by year. The figure of trade deficit increased by 23 percent in the last year compared to the previous fiscal year.

According to the Department, the trade deficit had reached over Rs 1,720 billion in the last fiscal year and it was over Rs 1,398 billion in the previous year.

In one year, Nepal saw foreign trade of worth over Rs 2,120 billion and this was more by 26.15 percent than of the previous year. In the fiscal year 2020-21, the country's foreign trade transactions were worth around Rs 1,681 billion.

Nepal reported 468 new Covid-19 cases and one death on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 3, 084 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 453 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 716 people underwent antigen tests, of which 115 were tested positive.

As of today, there are 3,534 active cases in the country.

The Nepali government on Sunday announced a number of measures to revive the tourism industry battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, including a plan to declare the years between 2023 and 2033 as Visit Nepal Decade, Xinhua reported.

Unveiling the Tourism Rehabilitation Action Plan, Jeevan Ram Shrestha, Nepal’s minister for culture, tourism and civil aviation, said the government is breaking the tradition of announcing a single year as Visit Nepal Year so as to run a sustained campaign to promote tourism, a major foreign exchange earner and job creator for the country.

As per the action plan, the Visit Nepal Decade is expected to come out within the next three months.

The government plans to attract 1 million foreign tourists in the 2022-23 fiscal year which began in mid-July. “We have not yet set any target for the planned Visit Nepal Decade. We have to do further homework and consultations with the stakeholders,” Hom Prasad Luitel, joint secretary at the tourism ministry, told Xinhua.

Nepal received 1.19 million foreign visitors in 2019 and sought to attract 2 million in 2020 when Visit Nepal 2020 was launched, but COVID-19 forced the government to call off the campaign. As the pandemic persisted, the tourism sector fared poorly in 2020 and 2021.

Nepal was reporting more foreign visitor arrivals in 2022 as fewer people were infected. As of June, there were 237,670 foreigners visiting the South Asian country, according to the tourism ministry.

Under the new action plan, Nepal will launch promotion campaigns in China, India and Bangladesh, of them the former two being the largest sources of tourists for Nepal in normal years.

There is a plan as well to promote Nepal as a destination for meetings, conferences and exhibitions and spiritual tourism with packages of yoga, wellness and spa to be offered.

In addition, the ministry is mulling over retirement visas and healthcare facilities for elderly foreigners to stay longer in Nepal. Currently, there is no legal provision of issuing retirement visas in the country. “We will discuss it with the Ministry of Home Affairs which is responsible for visa issuance,” said Luitel, Xinhua reported.

As mountaineering is a key part of Nepal’s tourism, the country is planning to open more Himalayan peaks.
Under the action plan, more peaks at 5,800 to 8,000 meters above the sea level will be opened for mountaineering. According to authorities, Nepal has so far opened 414 peaks above 5,700 meters for climbing.

Included in the action plan are other measures like cooperation and coordination with international airlines, GPS tracking system to make trekking and mountaineering safer, multi-lingual helpline support centers for tourists and many more facilities for foreigners who come to Nepal for movie shootings, according to Xinhua.