Eight people have been killed in a shooting at a secondary school in a remote Canadian town, after the 18-year-old suspect fatally shot two family members at home before launching the attack, police have said.

Jesse Van Rootselaar was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound following Tuesday’s violence in Tumbler Ridge, a mountain community in north-eastern British Columbia.

Sequence of events

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said the suspect first killed her 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at the family home. She had a history of mental health contacts with police, he said. A young relative fled to a neighbour, who alerted officers. The two bodies were later discovered inside the property.

She then went to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where a 39-year-old teacher and five pupils aged 12 and 13 were among those killed. One victim was found in a stairwell, with the others believed to have been in the library.

More than 25 people were injured.

Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said officers arrived at the school within two minutes of the initial emergency call and came under fire as they approached. A long gun and a modified handgun were recovered at the scene.

Police initially reported nine deaths but revised the figure to eight after a critically injured victim who had been airlifted to hospital was wrongly believed to have died. The motive for the attack remains unclear.

“There is no information at this point that anyone was specifically targeted,” Mr McDonald said, adding that the suspect was not related to any of the school victims.

Tumbler Ridge

Tumbler Ridge, with a population of about 2,700, lies more than 1,000 kilometres north-east of Vancouver, near the Alberta border. The secondary school has around 175 pupils in Years 7 to 12.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said the country was mourning alongside the community. “Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you, and Canada stands by you,” he said. Flags at federal buildings will fly at half-mast for seven days.

The attack is Canada’s deadliest since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that led to a further nine deaths.

Residents described scenes of panic and grief. Shelley Quist said her neighbour had lost her 12-year-old son. “We heard his mum. She was in the street crying. She wanted her son’s body,” she said.

Her 17-year-old son, Darian, was inside the school during the shooting and was placed under lockdown for more than two hours. He said he realised the danger when the headteacher ordered classroom doors to be closed.

“We used the desk to block the doors,” he said, adding that classmates sent him photographs showing blood in the corridors.

Ms Quist, who works at the hospital near the school, said she initially tried to run towards the building when the shooting began but was stopped by a colleague. She later reached her son by phone and confirmed he was safe.

Footage circulating online showed pupils leaving the building with their hands raised as armed officers surrounded the school and a helicopter circled overhead.

Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka said he was “devastated” by the loss in what he described as a close-knit community. “I broke down,” he said. “I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims.”

The Rev George Rowe, a former teacher at the school, said families gathered at a local recreation centre awaiting news of their children. “To walk through the corridors of that school will never be the same again,” he said.

Both the secondary school and the local primary school will remain closed for the rest of the week.