Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper greets the Jewish community
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper greets the Jewish community as he arrives to participate in a candle lighting ceremony to mark the start of Hanukkah in Montreal, Quebec, December 16, 2014. Reuters/Stringer

Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated that the Parliament assault might not have been a "lone wolf" attack. Harper said that there was a possibility that other people might have been involved.

Harper talked about the Parliament attack in October that was conducted by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. The Canadian citizen, who earlier wished to go to Syria to study Islam, killed a soldier and stormed the Parliament. He was eventually shot dead in a gunfight in the Parliament halls. Even though he was alone in the attack, Harper refused to come to a hasty conclusion. "People say he was a lone wolf," Reuters quoted Harper, "It's true he was a single attacker, but it is not necessarily the case that it was only one guy." The Canadian PM was talking with the French-language TVA network.

Harper said that there was a possibility that more people had been around Zehaf-Bibeau. He also referred to Martin Rouleau, the Muslim convert who had run two soldiers down in Quebec and killed one of them. Rouleau was also shot dead. Harper said that those two attackers might have had other people backing them up. Harper said that police had been aware of Rouleau practising extremist ideologies. He said that police were also aware of dozens of other Canadians with similar views. However, police have not been able to take them into custody or conduct the necessary surveillance. He, on the other hand, did not give further details on his claim as he said that the investigation on the matter was underway.

The Canadian prime minister also talked about the arrest of a teenager in Montreal. The 15-year-old was arrested after he had allegedly robbed a convenience store so that he could have enough funds to carry out terrorist activities. The teenage boy apparently used Facebook to get in touch with Rouleau who killed Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent after hitting him with his car on Oct 20. The Telegram reported that Zehaf-Bibeau had killed Cpl Nathan Cirillo a couple of days later in Parliament Hill.

Australia recently suffered an apparent "lone wolf" attack when a gunman held hostages in a Sydney café. The Sydney Siege eventually killed three, including the assailant.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au