Canada in shock after one of the country's worst mass shootings

Tumbler Ridge in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta. The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students from grades 7 to 12.

“Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you and Canada stands by you,” an emotional Prime Minister Mark Carney said as he arrived in Parliament.

Carney said flags at government buildings across the country will be flown at half-staff for seven days, adding: “We will get through this."

School shootings are rare in Canada, which has strict gun control laws. The government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun control measures, including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.

Tuesday’s shootings were Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.

Carney’s office said he was suspending a planned trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Munich, Germany. He had been set to announce a long-awaited defense industrial strategy in Halifax on Wednesday before heading to Europe for the Munich Security Conference.

British Columbia Premier David Eby told reporters that police officers reached the school within two minutes.

A video showed students walking out with hands raised as police vehicles surrounded the building and a helicopter circled overhead.

Police found six people dead, RCMP Superintendent Ken Floyd said. A seventh person died while being transported to a hospital, and two more were found dead at a residence the authorities believe was connected to the attack. A suspect appeared to have died of a “self-inflicted injury.”

Floyd told reporters that investigators had identified a female suspect but would not release a name, and that the shooter's motive remained unclear. He said police are investigating the connection between the shooter and the victims.

Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka said it was “devastating” to learn how many had died in the community of 2,700, which he called a “big family.”

“I broke down,” Krakowka said. “I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims.”

The Rev. George Rowe of the Tumbler Ridge Fellowship Baptist Church went to the recreation center where victims’ families were awaiting more information.

“It was not a pretty sight. Families are still waiting to hear if it’s their child that’s deceased and because of protocol and procedure, the investigating team is very careful in releasing names,” Rowe said Tuesday. “The big thing tonight was my having to walk away and the families still waiting to find out. It is so difficult. Other pastors and counselors are there, so they are not alone.”

Rowe once taught at the high school and his three children graduated from there.

“To walk through the corridors of that school will never be the same again,” he said.

The school district said the high school and Tumbler Ridge Elementary School will be closed for the rest of the week.

Eby on Tuesday said he had spoken to the prime minister about the “unimaginable tragedy.”

“I know it’s causing us all to hug our kids a little bit tighter tonight,” he said. “I’m asking the people of British Columbia to look after the people of Tumbler Ridge tonight.”

Gillies reported from Toronto.