Canada sees worst shooting incident in 26 years, 4 killed

A shooting incident on Friday at a remote community school in western Canada left four people dead and several others critically injured in the country's deadliest shooting case in 26 years.

The death toll was revised after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier that five people had died.

"Obviously this is every parent's worst nightmare," Trudeau said, calling it "a terrible, tragic day."

A suspect was in custody after the shooting occurred, Trudeau added.

The incident took place at La Loche Community School, which houses approximately 900 students from pre-kindergarten to the 12th grade, in northern Saskatchewan province in western Canada at around 10:00 p.m. local time (6:00 p.m. GMT).

"I ran outside the school. There was lots of screaming, and there was about six, seven shots before I got outside. I believe there were more shots by the time I did get out," a student named Noel Desjarlais said on the school's Facebook page, recalling the shooting scene.

Police on the scene said both La Loche Community School and an elementary school in northern Saskatchewan were in lockdown, while Saskatchewan's air ambulance system has dispatched assistance teams to La Loche.

"We are in the preliminary stages of investigation," the police said in a news release. "Further details will be provided as they become available."

A crisis team composed of professionals and community elders has been dispatched from the Meadow Lake Tribal Council to "help the community pull together," according to Teddy Clark, chief of the adjoining village of Clearwater River Dene Nation.

"The school has been a safe haven for a lot of our children," said Clark, "The community is devastated. People are asking questions and searching for answers. No one was prepared for something like this," he said.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall expressed "shock and sorrow at the horrific events," as reported by the AFP.

"My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims, their families and friends and all the people of the community," he said.

The province, Wall added, was preparing to send up "crisis support" to the community.

Kevin Janvier, acting mayor of La Loche, told a Saskatchewan radio station Friday evening that his daughter, Marie, was one of the victims.

La Loche is a village home to the remote Dene First Nations community of about 3,000 people on the eastern shore of Lac La Loche.

With rare occurrence of shootings in Canada, the school shooting in the community is the country's deadliest in 26 years.

On December 6, 1989, a 25-year-old man opened fire at the Polytechnic School in Montreal in the eastern Canadian province of Quebec, killing 14 people, including 10 female students.

Source: XINHUA