Toronto, Dec. 27 (Reuters): A shooting left a woman dead and six people injured in a busy downtown Toronto shopping district on Monday as hundreds milled around on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, Toronto police said.

Two men were arrested and a gun was recovered, police said. The shooting took place on the city’s Yonge Street strip as people descended on stores for the traditional Boxing Day holiday sales.

“It appears from what we’ve been able to determine that it was just random,” said Toronto police spokesman Don Cole. “There may have been somebody targeted in the crowd and the rest were just random, we just don’t know.”

Toronto, which prides itself on its safety, has seen a record number of gun deaths in 2005, with 52 of 78 homicides in the city attributable to guns. Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberal Party, under pressure to clamp down on gun violence in Canada’s big cities, has promised a ban on handguns if it wins January elections.