TORONTO: Nine people, including a young girl, were shot near downtown Toronto, police in Canada’s biggest city said on Sunday, and the gunman was dead. The condition of the victims was not known yet, Toronto police said on their Twitter feed. Police, paramedics and firefighters converged on the site of the shooting in Toronto’s east end, which has many popular restaurants, cafes and shops. Reports of gunfire in the city’s Greektown neighborhood began at 10 p.m. local time (0200 GMT Monday), CityNews.com said. Witnesses said they heard 25 gunshots, the news website reported. Toronto is grappling with a sharp rise in gun violence this year. Deaths from gun violence in the city jumped 53 percent to 26 so far in 2018 from the same period last year, police data last week showed, with the number of shootings rising 13 percent. Toronto deployed about 200 police officers from July 20 in response to the recent spate in shootings, which city officials have blamed on gang violence.