Ten dead after shooter opens fire at high school in Canada

OTTAWA – Ten people, including the suspected shooter, were found dead after an assailant opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Feb 10 in one of the country’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent history.

The outburst brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighbouring United States, and was carried out by a shooter described as female, the police said.

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

At least two other people were hospitalised with serious or life-threatening injuries, and as many as 25 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, the police said.

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

“It’s hard to know what to say on a night like tonight. It’s the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places and not close to home,” British Columbia Premier David Eby told reporters.

The police released almost no details about the shooter except to say that the person was described as female – unusual in that mass shootings in North America have almost always been carried out by men.

A police active shooter alert said the suspect was described as “a female in a dress with brown hair”.

Police Superintendent Ken Floyd later confirmed at a press conference that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead in the school.

The police did not say how many of the victims may have been minors.

‘Tight-knit community’

Canada has stricter gun laws than the US, but Canadians can own firearms with a licence.

The Justin Trudeau government had introduced a number of restrictions on handgun ownership and assault-style weapons since 2020, partly in response to a mass shooting in Nova Scotia and the Uvalde school shooting in Texas.

However, attempts to ban certain types of rifles and shotguns were abandoned after opposition from farmers and hunters.

Tumbler Ridge is a remote municipality with a population of about 2,400 people in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, some 1,155km north-east of Vancouver. Images of the town show a snow-covered landscape filled with pine trees.

According to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School’s website, it has 160 students in grades seven through 12, roughly from the ages of 12 to 18.

The school was closed for the rest of the week and counselling will be made available to those in need, school officials said.

Officials said the town’s small police force was on the scene within two minutes of receiving a call, and that victims were still being assessed hours after the incident.

“This is a small, tight-knit community with a small RCMP detachment as well, who responded in two minutes, no doubt saving lives today,” Ms Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s Public Safety Minister, told reporters.

The shooting ranks among the deadliest in Canadian history.

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. The police killed him at a petrol station about 90km from the site of his first killings.

In Canada’s worst school shooting, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, before committing suicide.

In response to the shooting, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney postponed a planned announcement in Halifax on Feb 11 for a new Defence Industrial Strategy and subsequent trip to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, a spokesperson said.

“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,” Mr Carney said on social media platform X. REUTERS