Ten dead after a shooting in Canadian province of British Columbia

Ten people are dead, including the shooter, after a woman opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Tuesday before turning the gun on herself, Canadian police said.

The outburst, described by authorities as one of the country's deadliest mass-casualty events in recent years, brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighbouring United States.

Six people were found dead inside a high school in the town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, two more were found dead at a residence believed to be connected to the incident, and another person died on the way to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

At least two people were hospitalised with serious or life-threatening injuries, and as many as 25 people were receiving treatment for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

A suspected shooter was also found dead from what appears to be a self-inflicted injury. Police said they did not believe there were any more suspects or an ongoing threat to the public.

Police described the shooter as a woman, noting the rarity of a female suspect in such attacks in North America. A police active shooter alert described the suspect “as female in a dress with brown hair.”

Police Superintendent Ken Floyd later confirmed that the individual described in the alert “was the same person found deceased in the school.” He did not specify how many of the victims may have been minors.

Tumbler Ridge is a remote municipality with a population of around 2,400 people, set in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, roughly 1,155 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

Images of the town show a snow-covered landscape surrounded by dense pine forest.

“Multiple injuries and multiple deceased were inside the school as officers progressed through the scene,” Floyd told reporters.

“We're still triaging other victims, and I don't have updates on whether that number could rise. The scene was very dramatic, and there are multiple victims that are still being cared for.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on X: “I am devastated by today’s horrific shootings in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. My prayers and deepest condolences are with the families and friends who have lost loved ones to these horrific acts of violence.”

Mark Carney has also suspended his planned trip to the Munich Security Conference following the school shooting in British Columbia, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised as a police officer killed 22 people during a 13-hour rampage in Nova Scotia before being shot by police.

In Canada’s worst school shooting, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 others at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique before killing himself.

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