Ottawa: Nine people were killed in a mass shooting allegedly by a person, possibly a woman, who committed suicide in a mining town in British Columbia, according to officials.
The area’s federal police Chief Superintendent Ken Floyd said on Tuesday night (local time) that seven people were found dead in a local high school in Tumbler Ridge and two others in a home.
The alleged shooter was discovered dead in the school, he said during a virtual news conference.
Floyd, who commands the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) northern district in the province, said that about 100 staff and students at the school were safe and were evacuated.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said on X that he was “devastated” by the “horrific acts of violence”.
There were indications that the shooter was a woman or someone in female attire.
Citing privacy reasons and the ongoing investigation, Floyd did not disclose if the shooter was a student or an adult, but confirmed that it was the same person mentioned in an active shooter alert sent to phones in the area.
That message described the suspected shooter as a brown-haired female wearing a dress.
Two people with serious injuries were airlifted to a hospital, while 25 were checked for injuries at a local medical centre, according to police.
British Columbia’s Premier David Eby called the incident an “unimaginable tragedy” and said the “government will ensure every possible support for community members in the coming days”.
Floyd said that they have not yet been able to ascertain the motives for the attack.
“I think we will struggle to determine the ‘why’, but we will try our best to determine what transpired”, he said.
The house was near the school, and the shootings were connected, Floyd said.
Tumble Ridge is a small coal mining town of about 2,400 people in an area famed for dinosaur footprints and fossils.
Mass shootings are rare in Canada, and the last major incident involving a school was in Montreal in 1989, when 14 died.
The worst massacre in recent times was in Nova Scotia in 2020 when, over two days, a man shot dead 13 people and killed nine others by setting fire.
(IANS)
