Ten people including the shooter are dead after an assailant opened fire at a school in Canada Tuesday in one of the country’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent history. The attack brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighbouring US, and was carried out by a shooter described as female, 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, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. At least two other people were hospitalised with serious or life-threatening wounds, and as many as 25 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. “It was a situation that you really never want to face again … the sight of what I saw was devastating, many parents just waiting for the news on whether their child had survived the shooting or not,” said local pastor George Rowe. Police would only identify victims when they had “absolute, unequivocal identification,” he said on Wednesday. Canadian PM Mark Carney offered his condolences. “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.” Shooter details not out A suspected shooter was also found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury, police said, adding they did not believe there were any more suspects or ongoing threat. Police released almost no details about the shooter except to say the person was described as female – an unusual development as mass shootings in North America are almost always carried out by men. Gun laws stricter than US Canada has stricter gun laws than the US, but Canadians can own firearms with a license. The Trudeau govt 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. The shooting in Tumbler Ridge is the third deadliest mass shooting in Canada, along with a 1996 shooting in Vernon, British Columbia, that resulted in 10 deaths. In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised in a police uniform killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, before police killed him. In 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and hurt 13 in Montreal, before killing self. Reuters
