A hit-and-run incident in Ontario, Canada is being treated as a hate crime as all the four victims were Muslims. 

The local police authority said on Monday a 20-year-old man has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths on Sunday. The victims were two women, a man, and a 15-year-old girl. 

The suspect, Nathanial Veltman, is also been charged with one count of attempted murder of a 9-year-old  boy who survived and was the other victim of the accident. The boy has been hospitalized with severe injuries and is expected to survive.

Detective Supt. Paul Waight of the London Police Service, Ontario, said the family members were killed when Veltman drove his pickup truck over a curb Sunday night and struck the five victims as they waited to cross an intersection in the city of 404,000, located about 110 miles west of Toronto.

The truck then sped off, not stopping for the red light, he said.

The driver of the truck, Veltman, was soon arrested just a couple of miles away from the scene.

"There is evidence that this was a planned, premeditated attack motivated by hate," Waight said. "It is believed these victims were targeted because they are Muslim."

There is no immediate indication Veltman was acting in coordination with others, he added.

"Words fail on a day as dark as this," London Mayor Ed Holder said during the news conference. "Our hearts are broken. I grieve for the family -- three generations of whom are now deceased."