4 killed in Canadian school shooting

Officials in the community of La Loche have not said if there are other injuries, or released any other details.

Authorities did not disclose the age and identify of the shooter and victims.

“There is now an emergency occurring at the Dene Building and we are asking the public to stay away while the matter is resolved by the RCMP”, the school said on Facebook.

Among Canada’s provinces, Saskatchewan had the highest rate of police-reported family violence in 2014, double the national rate of 243 incidents per 100,000 people, according to a Statistics Canada report on Thursday. “This is something that you only see on TV most of the time”, Clark told the newspaper.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier on Friday afternoon that RCMP had told him five people were dead, but during the most recent press conference RCMP confirmed that the number was in fact four. In addition to the school, police are investigating a shooting at a residence in the town of about 2,600 people, Levy said.

Several patients were being treated for gunshot wounds in the remote northern town’s hospital the broadcaster added.

The school is a pre-kindergarten to grade 12 school, which houses about 900 students in two buildings. Janvier is also the daughter of the town’s acting mayor, Kevin Janvier.

Desjarlais-Thomas forwarded to The Canadian Press a screenshot of a chilling exchange that had taken place on social media a short time before the shooting between a young man and his friends.

Shootings at schools or on university campuses are rare in Canada. With five dead, La Loche would be the country’s worst school shooting since 14 college students were killed at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique in 1989.

“Words can not express my shock and sorrow at the horrific events today in La Loche”, he said.

The province, he said, was preparing to send up “crisis support” to the community.

Canadian tennis superstar Milos Raonic, competing at the Australian Open, dedicated his game victory to the people of La Loche.

“The shooting hits close to home for me as my family members attend the school”, Joliebois said.

“Obviously this is every parent’s worst nightmare”, he said, calling it “a awful, tragic day”.

Many Canadians living in rural parts own long guns like the one that appears to have been used in the shooting, and led a strong opposition to the registry they said wrongly targeted farmers and hunters.