8 teenage girls who met through social media have been accused of stabbing a man to death in a 'swarming' attack in Toronto, police said

• Eight teenage girls have been accused of stabbing a Toronto man to death, police said.
• The 59-year-old victim was killed in downtown Toronto in a "swarming" attack, authorities said.

Eight teenage girls who all met through social media have been accused of stabbing a man to death in a "swarming" attack in Toronto, Canada, this week, police said.

Toronto police said in a press release that the young suspects — three 13-year-olds, three 14-year-olds, and two 16-year-olds — were arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection to the December 18 killing of a 59-year-old man.

The man, whose identity was not immediately released, moved into the city's homeless shelter system recently, Toronto Police Service Detective Sergeant Terry Browne said at a press conference on Tuesday. Browne said the man had "a very supportive family in the area" and may have been on "some hard luck."

Police have not yet given a motive for the killing but said that the suspects swarmed the victim.

"I wouldn't describe them as a gang at this point," Browne told reporters of the suspects, "but what they are alleged to have occurred that evening would be consistent with what we traditionally call a swarming or swarming-type behavior."

Police found several weapons in the aftermath of the incident, according to Browne.

Authorities said that just after midnight on December 18, a group of bystanders flagged down EMS workers and reported that there had been an assault near York Street and University Avenue.

Emergency responders took the severely injured man to a nearby hospital, where he died.

Browne said during a press conference that authorities "learned very early on that the suspects involved in this were being described as eight young females," and the suspects were quickly arrested.

Police believe that the band of girls were in the area where the attack happened less than two hours earlier and were involved in another "altercation" at that point.

Browne said the suspects met each other through social media and live in all different parts of Toronto. He said authorities do not know how long the girls have known each other.

"We don't know how or why they met on that evening and why the destination was downtown Toronto," Browne said.

Three of the girls have had prior "contact" with police, according to Browne.

Meanwhile, a resident at the co-ed homeless shelter at the city's Strathcona Hotel told CBC Toronto that she was smoking a cigarette with the victim outside the shelter when the group of girls came up to them.

The unnamed woman told the news outlet that the girls tried to take her alcohol, and the victim intervened.

"He protected me," the woman said of the victim.

The woman said the girls then attacked the man, and she fled out of fear.

"Bleeding, bleeding, bleeding. I didn't know if they had a knife or what. I was just scared," the woman said.