Authorities responded to an active shooter Tuesday afternoon at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in Canada, where seven people, including the suspect in the mass shooting, were found dead, according to officials.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the suspect appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police later found two more people dead at a nearby home, an incident investigators believe is linked to the school attack.
Incident updates
Two victims were airlifted to a nearby hospital for serious or life-threatening injuries, and a third victim died while being transported to the hospital, according to officials. Approximately 25 others were treated at a local medical center for non-life threatening injuries, the police said.
The identities and ages of the victims have not been released, as they are still notifying their families, Premier David Eby of British Columbia said in a news briefing.
Prime Minister Mark Carney postponed a planned trip to the Munich Security Conference in Germany to address the tragedy.
“This morning, parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love,” Carney said Wednesday. “The nation mourns with you, Canada stands by you.”
In a social media post, Carney shared that the country’s ability to come together in crisis represents “the best of our country — our empathy, our unity, and our compassion for each other.”
Timeline of the attack
The shooting was first reported at 1:20 p.m. PST, according to a police release. Jarbas Noronha, a shop teacher at the school, told The New York Times that Principal Stacie Gruntman initiated a lockdown roughly two minutes after a student reported hearing gunshots.
Teachers and students hid for hours inside the school during the attack.
Police canceled the alert at 5:45 p.m. after determining there was no further threat to the public.
The shooter’s identity and motive remain under investigation. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Ken Floyd told reporters investigators had identified a female suspect, and they were still investigating how the victims were connected to the shooter.
Where is Tumbler Ridge?
Tumbler Ridge is a remote mountain town of 2,400 people in the Rocky Mountain foothills, roughly 730 miles northeast of Vancouver. Originally a coal-mining town, it is now known for outdoor tourism.
“I will know every victim,” Mayor Darryl Krakowka told CBC. “We’re a small community. ... I don’t call them residents. I call them family.”
The government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students from grades 7 to 12.
The Peace River South School District confirmed that both the secondary school and the Tumbler Ridge Elementary School remained under “lockdown and secure” protocols Tuesday. All local schools will be closed through the rest of the week, according to CBS News.
Gun violence in Canada
Mass killings are rare in Canada, but the attack in Tumbler Ridge was the second deadly incident in British Columbia in less than a year after a man drove a car into a crowd last April.
Tuesday’s attack was the third-deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history, according to The New York Times.
In 2020, Gabriel Wortman killed 22 people in the eastern province of Nova Scotia. In 1989, Marc Lépine shot 14 women dead in an attack on an engineering class at a university in Montreal, Quebec, according to CBS.