Massacre in Canada. A person opened fire in a high school, at least 9 dead / The second deadliest armed attack in the history of the country
Canadian police are investigating the scene of an armed attack. Illustrative photo. Photo source: Canadian Press / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
Nine people were killed in an isolated region of western Canada on Tuesday, including seven fatally shot at a high school and two others found dead in a nearby residence, police said, according to Reuters and AFP. A woman, the author of the attack, committed suicide, according to the authorities.
This incident is one of the deadliest events in the country's recent history, with mass attacks being more common in the United States.
Six people were found dead inside a high school in the British Columbia town of Tumbler Ridge, two more people were found dead at a residence believed to be related to the incident and another person died en route to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
At least two other people were hospitalized with serious or life-threatening injuries, and 25 people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
One suspect was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted wound, police said, adding that they do not believe there are any other suspects or threats to the public.
Police described the shooter as a woman, an unusual situation given that mass shootings in North America are almost always carried out by men.
A police shooter alert described the suspect as “a female in a dress with brown hair.” Police Commissioner Ken Floyd later confirmed at a press conference that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead at the school. Police did not say how many of the victims may have been minors.
One of the deadliest multi-casualty incidents in Canada
Tumbler Ridge, the site of the mass shooting, is an isolated community of approximately 2,400 located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, approximately 1,155 km northeast of Vancouver. Pictures from the town show a landscape covered in snow and full of pine trees.
“Multiple injuries and multiple fatalities were inside the school while officers were on the scene,” Floyd told reporters.
“We are still triaging other victims and I don't have an update on whether that number could increase. The scene was very dramatic and several victims are still being treated,” Floyd said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on X: “I am devastated by today's horrific shootings in Tumbler Ridge, BC. My prayers and sincere condolences go out to the families and friends who have lost loved ones to these horrific acts of violence.”
In April 2020, a 51-year-old man dressed as a police officer 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 at a gas station about 90 km from the scene of his first killings.
In Canada's worst gun incident, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, before killing himself.
