10 dead after woman opens fire at high school in Canada
World
Police active shooter alert said the suspect was described "as female in a dress with brown hair"
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Ten people including the shooter are dead after an assailant opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Tuesday in one of the country’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent history.
The outburst brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighbouring United States, 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 injuries, and as many as 25 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
A suspected shooter was also found dead from what appears to be a self-inflicted injury, police said, adding they did not believe there were any more suspects or an ongoing threat to the public.
“It’s hard to know what to say on a night like tonight. It’s the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places and not close to home,” British Columbia Premier David Eby told reporters.
Police released almost no details about the shooter except to say the person was described as a female — potentially an unusual development as mass shootings in North America are almost always carried out by men.
A police active shooter alert said the suspect was described “as female in a dress with brown hair.”
Police Superintendent Ken Floyd later confirmed at a news conference that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead in the school. Police did not say how many of the victims may have been minors.
Tumbler Ridge student Darian Quist told the public broadcaster CBC that he was in his mechanics class when there was an announcement that the school was in lockdown.
He said that initially he “didn’t think anything was going on,” but started receiving “disturbing” photos about the carnage at the school.
Then “it set in what was happening”, Quist said.
He said he stayed in lockdown for more than two hours when police stormed in, ordering everyone to put their hands up before escorting them out of the school.
Darian’s mother Shelley Quist, also interviewed, said she embraced her son when they finally connected after the site was declared safe.
“He’s not going to be out of my sight for a while now,” she told the CBC.
‘Tight-knit community’
Tumbler Ridge is a remote municipality with a population of around 2,400 people in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, approximately 1,155 km (717 miles) northeast of Vancouver.
Images of the town show a snow-covered landscape filled with pine trees.
Tumbler Ridge Secondary School has 160 students in grades seven through 12, roughly ages 12 to 18, according to its website.
The school was closed for the rest of the week and counselling will be made available to those in need, school officials said.
Officials said the town’s small police force was on the scene within two minutes of receiving a call, and that victims were still being assessed hours after the incident.
“This is a small, tight-knit community with a small RCMP detachment as well, who responded in two minutes, no doubt saving lives today,” Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s public safety minister, told reporters.
‘Horrific violence’
In response to the shooting, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney postponed a planned announcement in Halifax on Wednesday for a new Defence Industrial Strategy and subsequent trip to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, a spokesperson said.
“I am devastated by todays 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 said on X.
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.
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) February 11, 2026
I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed…
British Columbia Premier David Eby called the violence “unimaginable”.
The shooting ranks among the deadliest in Canadian history.
In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised in a police uniform and driving a fake police car shot and killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, before police killed him at a gas station about 90 km (60 miles) from the site of his first killings.
In Canada’s worst school shooting, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, before committing suicide.
