A gun attack claimed the lives of nine people and left dozens injured at a high school and a nearby home in a remote community in western Canada on Tuesday, before the assailant died by suicide.
The violence unfolded in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, a small mountain town located in the Rocky Mountain foothills. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), 27 people sustained injuries, including two in critical condition, while the remaining victims suffered non-life-threatening wounds.
Canadian media reported that the shooter was a woman, though police declined to release details about the suspect’s identity during a press briefing.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the “horrific violence” and announced he would cancel his planned trip to the Munich Security Conference, where he was scheduled to meet allies to discuss transatlantic security issues.
Police said an active-shooter alert was issued Tuesday afternoon at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Officers later discovered six victims fatally shot inside the school, while a seventh person died from gunshot injuries while being transported to hospital.
In a related development, two additional bodies were found at a residence in the community, which authorities believe is linked to the same incident.
At the school, police also found a person believed to be the shooter dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Tumbler Ridge municipality expressed deep sorrow in a statement, saying the community was overwhelmed by grief. One witness, Quist, said he initially thought nothing was wrong but later began receiving troubling images from inside the school.
“That’s when it became clear what was happening,” he said, adding that he remained in lockdown for more than two hours before police entered, instructed everyone to raise their hands, and safely escorted them out of the building.
