Canada is reeling after a mass shooting targeting a school in a remote mining town, with nine people gunned down in one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.
Information is patchy, partly because of the remoteness of the location, but here is what we know so far:
What happened?
On Tuesday, police in the British Columbia town of Tumbler Ridge received a report of an active shooter.
Officers entered the town’s school and found six dead. The presumed shooter was also found with what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
One victim died on the way to a hospital and two were airlifted with serious or life-threatening injuries. About 25 others were treated for injuries at a nearby medical centre.
Officers found two bodies at a second location that they said was a home linked to the school attack, with searches ongoing at other residences.
The shooter
Little is known about the shooter and authorities have been tight-lipped about their identity and possible motives.
Preliminary information from an initial emergency alert suggested the shooter might have been a “female in a dress with brown hair.”
The location
The district of Tumbler Ridge, 730 miles (1170 kilometres) north of Vancouver, has a population of 2,700, according to the local authority. Many residents work in the mining, quarrying and hydrocarbon industries.
The area is also home to a UNESCO Global Geopark, recognized for its international geological significance.
Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where the shooting took place, has 175 students from grades seven to 12, according to the local government.
Images after the shooting showed students being led out of the school with their hands up, under the watch of armed officers.
Mass shootings in Canada
Other major mass shootings in Canada include a December 6, 1989 attack when a 25-year-old man claiming to be “anti-feminist” burst into a Montreal school and opened fire exclusively on women.
He killed 13 female students and a secretary before taking his own life.
In April 2020, a man disguised as a police officer and driving a fake police car went on a shooting and arson rampage in eastern Canada’s Nova Scotia.
He killed 22 people following a violent dispute with his partner, and was shot dead by police after a sprawling 12-hour manhunt.
More shootings
While mass killings are less frequent in Canada than in the U.S., statistics show a steady increase in violent gun crimes.
Canada recorded 36.9 incidents of firearm-related violent crime per 100,000 people in 2023. That’s 22 per cent higher compared to 2018 and 55 per cent higher than 2013.
In 2020, Canada banned 1,500 models of assault weapons in response to that year’s Nova Scotia killings.
