A mass shooting at a high school in the Canadian province of British Columbia has left at least 10 people dead, including the suspected attacker, according to police.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement on Tuesday that six people were found dead in the secondary school in the small town of Tumbler Ridge, while another person died on the way to hospital.
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Two other people were found dead at a home that police believe is connected to the shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.
Police did not say how many of the victims may have been minors.
The RCMP said the incident involved an “active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School” in British Columbia, and that “an individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased with what appears to be a self‑inflicted injury”.
Two people were “airlifted to hospital with serious or life‑threatening injuries”, and some 25 others were “being assessed and triaged at the local medical centre for non‑life‑threatening injuries”, the RCMP added.
All remaining students and staff were safely evacuated from the school, police said.
RCMP Northern District commander Ken Floyd told reporters that investigators had identified a female suspect but would not release a name. A public alert described the shooter as a female in a dress with brown hair
Police also remain tight-lipped about the age of the victims and the weapons used in the attack, citing privacy concerns and an ongoing investigation by the RCMP’s Major Crimes Unit.
Darian Quist, a grade 12 student at the school, told Canada’s CBC Radio West that he and other students “got tables and barricaded the doors” for over two hours during the mass shooting.
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“The reality of it all is starting to set in,” he said. “I believe I knew somebody, but everything is still very fresh” he added, describing the attack as “almost surreal”.
Quist said that the school was small with only about 20 students in his year level.
Located in the foothills of the British Columbia Rocky Mountains, more than 1,100 km (685 miles) north of Vancouver, the township of Tumbler Ridge has a population of fewer than 3,000 people.
The RCMP said officers were searching other homes and properties in the community to see if there were additional sites connected to the incident.
“We are not in a place now to be able to understand why and what may have motivated this tragedy, said the RCMP’s Floyd.
“This was a rapidly evolving and dynamic situation, and the swift cooperation from the school, first responders and community played a critical role in our response,” Floyd said.
Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka said he “broke down” when he learning how many had died. “It’s devastating,” he said.
“I have lived here for 18 years,” he said of the community of 2,700, which he called a “big family”. “I probably know every one of the victims.”
David Eby, the British Columbia premier, described the attack as an “unimaginable tragedy” and said the government would “ensure every possible support for community members in the coming days”.
“Our hearts are in Tumbler Ridge tonight with the families of those who have lost loved ones,” Eby said.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney was reported to have suspended his departure for a security conference in Munich, Germany, to deal with the tragedy at home.
“I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens,” Carney wrote in a post on social media.
Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre said on social media he was “devastated to hear of the many innocent people murdered and injured”.
Canada has stricter gun ownership laws than its neighbour, the United States, but a string of mass shootings in recent years has prompted calls for tougher control measures.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced gun control measures in 2022, including a “freeze” on the buying and selling of handguns in the country.
In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised in a police uniform and driving a fake police car shot and killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, before police killed him.
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The country’s worst school shooting occurred in December 1989, when a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, before killing themselves.
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