Four dead in Canada school shooting

Four people were killed and several injured in shootings at a school in the western Canadian province of Sakatchewan.

Police say that the suspected shooter is being held in custody after they received an emergency call about “a person discharging a weapon in the community”.

Police are also investigating a second location in a nearby residential neighborhood, but have not provided further further details.

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

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the school shooting as “every parent’s worst nightmare.

Trudeau held a news conference in Davos, Switzerland, where he was attending the World Economic Summit, to announce the death toll in the remote northern aboriginal community of La Loche.

The Prime Minister had earlier said that five people had been killed and two others were in critical condition, but a Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman later revised the death toll down to four."We all grieve with and stand with the community of La Loche and all of Saskatchewan on this terrible tragic day," Trudeau said.

La Loche students said they heard six or seven shots ring out at around 1pm local time, and several witnesses reported seeing a "boy," who was either a student or formerly attended the school, opening fire inside the building.

"I ran outside the school," Noel Desjarlais, a Grade 10 student at the school, told public broadcaster CBC.

"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."

The town's hospital told AFP they were treating the victims for gunshot wounds.

The high school and a nearby elementary school were locked down as police responded.

"It's just tragic and everybody's running around," acting mayor Kevin Janvier said, adding that to his understanding the shooting took place when an individual walked in and "opened fire in the building."

Located deep in Canada's northern boreal forest, 600 kilometers north of Saskatoon, the town of La Loche is particularly isolated and authorities had to send in police reinforcements and dispatch a medical helicopter to airlift some victims to a hospital.

The school shooting is Canada's deadliest in 26 years, since a 25-year-old man killed 14 people after opening fire at the Polytechnic School in Montreal in 1989.