A shooting rampage at a secondary school in remote northern British Columbia has left ten people dead, including the attacker, in one of Canada’s deadliest mass casualty incidents in recent memory.
Police confirmed late Tuesday that six victims were found inside Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, while another person died during transport to hospital. Two additional bodies were discovered at a residence investigators believe is connected to the attack. The suspected shooter, described by authorities as female, was found dead at the school from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The violence unfolded shortly after 1:20 p.m. local time when Royal Canadian Mounted Police received reports of an active shooter at the school, which serves students from grades seven through twelve in the municipality of Tumbler Ridge. Officers issued an emergency alert and responded within minutes.
Two victims were airlifted to medical facilities with serious or life-threatening injuries, while approximately 25 others received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries at a local medical center, according to police statements. All remaining students and staff were safely evacuated from the campus. “Multiple injuries and multiple deceased were inside the school as officers progressed through the scene,” RCMP Superintendent Ken Floyd told reporters at an evening news conference. “We’re still triaging other victims, and I don’t have updates on whether that number could rise. The scene was very dramatic, and there are multiple victims that are still being cared for.”
Floyd said investigators believe they have identified the shooter but withheld the name pending notification of family members. The suspect was described in police alerts as a female wearing a dress with brown hair. Floyd confirmed that the individual referenced in the alert matched the person found deceased inside the school.
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Authorities did not disclose how many victims were minors, though the school serves only secondary students. Police also have not determined a motive for the attack or clarified any relationship between the shooter and the victims.
The emergency alert was officially canceled at 5:45 p.m. after police determined there were no outstanding suspects or ongoing threats to public safety. School District 59 announced that all elementary and secondary schools in Tumbler Ridge would remain closed for the remainder of the week.
Tumbler Ridge is by the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, approximately 1,155 kilometers from Vancouver and roughly 100 kilometers west of the Alberta border. The isolated community has a population of fewer than 3,000 residents. Provincial records list Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 enrolled students. British Columbia Premier David Eby characterized the attack as an “unimaginable tragedy” during a late-night news conference. He said police arrived at the school within two minutes of receiving the initial report. “That speed and professionalism saved lives today,” Eby said. “This is something that will reverberate for years to come. As British Columbians, I know that one of the things we do best is look after each other. And I’m asking British Columbians to look after the people of Tumbler Ridge tonight.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a statement expressing devastation over the violence. “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,” Carney wrote on social media. Carney suspended scheduled travel to Halifax and Munich, Germany, in response to the tragedy. He had been expected to attend the Munich Security Conference later this week.
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The incident represents an unusual development in North American mass shooting patterns, as such attacks are overwhelmingly carried out by male perpetrators. Police confirmed the suspect was female but provided no additional demographic information.
Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, said trauma-informed counselors were being dispatched to the region to support affected families and community members. Psychiatric liaison nurses were working through the night in Tumbler Ridge to provide mental health support. “The shock waves of this horrific event will continue to reverberate through the community and throughout the country for some time,” Krieger said. “Education ministry staff have been in continued contact with the school district today, and we are actively mobilizing trauma and crisis response supports.”
Darian Quist, a grade twelve student at the school, described hearing an alarm sound in hallways shortly after 1:30 p.m. with instructions to close doors due to a lockdown. He said students barricaded classroom doors with tables and remained sheltered for over two hours until police arrived to escort them out. “We got tables and barricaded the doors,” Quist told CBC Radio. “It felt like I was somewhere that I had only seen across a TV.”
His mother, Shelley Quist, said she witnessed several students being escorted from the school by police during the evacuation. Families reunited with their children at a community center located a few hundred meters from the campus.
Emergency medical services from surrounding areas responded to the scene, including Alberta-based STARS Air Ambulance, which dispatched crews from Grande Prairie to transport critically injured patients to Edmonton, approximately 600 kilometers southeast.
The attack ranks among Canada’s deadliest school shootings in history. In December 1989, a gunman killed fourteen female students at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal before taking his own life. That massacre remains the country’s worst school shooting.
