Four dead and at least two injured after shootings in Canada

A gunman opened fire at a school and a second location in an aboriginal community in Canada, leaving four dead and at least two injured.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said from Davos, Switzerland that a suspect was in custody in La Loche, northern Saskatchewan.

“This is every parent’s worst nightmare,” he said. “The community is reeling.”

Kevin Janvier told The Associated Press that his 23-year old daughter Marie, a teacher, was shot dead by the gunman.

He said police told him the gunman first shot two of his own siblings, before killing the teacher.

“He shot two of his brothers at his home and made his way to the school,” Mr Janvier said.

“I’m just so sad.”

Marie was Mr Janvier’s only child. He said he did not know if the shooter knew his daughter.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Maureen Levy said the gunman was arrested outside the school.

She said she was not sure how many people had suffered injuries. The prime minister earlier described two injuries as critical.

Ms Levy declined to release more details, saying the investigation is in its early stages. She did not give the sex or ages of the deceased.

A student who was just returning from lunch when shots were fired said his friends ran past him urging him to get out.

“’Run, bro, run!” Noel Desjarlais-Thomas, 16, recalled his friends saying to him as they fled La Loche’s junior and senior high school.

“There’s a shotgun! There’s a shotgun! They were just yelling to me. And then I was hearing those shots, too, so of course I started running.”

Shootings at schools or on university campuses are rare in Canada.

However, the country’s bloodiest shooting happened in December 1989 at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique, when Marc Lepine entered a classroom, separated the men from the women, told the men to leave and opened fire, killing 14 women before killing himself.

The grade 7 through 12 La Loche Community School is in the remote Dene aboriginal community of La Loche.

The school’s Facebook page said it would remain on lockdown until the Royal Canadian Police resolve the matter. It asked the public to stay away.