OTTAWA: Five people have been killed in a school shooting in a remote part of Saskatchewan and a suspect is in custody, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.
Two people are in critical condition after the shooting in La Loche, which is about 600km north of the city of Saskatoon.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking in Davos, Switzerland, where he was attending the World Economic Summit, said: “There was a shooting in the community, five people were killed (and) two others are in critical condition.”
“Obviously this is every parent’s worst nightmare,” Trudeau said.
“The suspected shooter has been taken into custody and police have the situation under control,” he said.
“We all grieve with and stand with the community of La Loche and all of Saskatchewan on this terrible tragic day,” Trudeau added.
Extra doctors and nurses have been sent to treat patients in Keewatin Yatthe Regional Health Authority’s 16-bed hospital, spokesman Dale West said.
Teddy Clark, chief of the Clearwater River Dene Nation, said that his daughter told him about the shooting, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
“I know there are some casualties and there are some people that are in critical condition that are being medivaced to the nearest cities, I would imagine Fort McMurray or Saskatoon.” La Loche Grade 10 student Noel Desjarlais told the CBC that he heard multiple shots fired at the school.
“I ran outside the school,” Desjarlais said. “There was lots of screaming, there was about six, seven shots before I got outside. I believe there was more shots by the time I did get out.” A mobile phone video taken by one resident and broadcast by the CBC showed students walking away from the school through the snow-covered ground and emergency personnel moving in.
La Loche Community School is a pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 school, which houses about 900 students in two buildings.
The school in La Loche was on lockdown, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police urged parents to stay away while they responded to the “ongoing incident.”
Source: Reuters
