A 12-year-old girl is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot in the head and neck during Canada’s worst school shooting in more than 30 years.
The shooting suspect, described only by authorities as a “gunperson” wearing a dress, left Maya Gebala with severe shrapnel wounds during an attack inside Tumbler Ridge High School on Tuesday afternoon.
They have been named as Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old from the town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.
The suspect shot dead six people inside the school, after killing two at a nearby home. The shooter died from self-inflicted wounds.
Another 25 people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Police block a road in the town of Tumbler Ridge near the high school – TRENT ERNST/AFP
Teachers and students barricaded their classrooms with metal benches and took shelter inside during the rampage.
Maya was one of two victims airlifted to Vancouver with severe injuries. A third died from their injuries mid-transport.
Cia Edmonds, Maya’s mother, said the day had started “as any other” and ended with her sitting by her daughter’s bedside in the critical care unit of Vancouver children’s hospital.
“She was a lucky one, I suppose,” Ms Edmonds wrote in an online message two hours after the shooting.
Maya Gebala was one of two victims airlifted to Vancouver with severe injuries
Ms Edmonds shared a photograph of her daughter to her personal Facebook page and wrote: “This doesn’t even feel real, never thought I would be asking for prayers.. but please, please pray for my baby.
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Krysta Young, Ms Edmond’s cousin, said Maya was “fighting for her life”, adding that she learnt of what happened during a panicked phone call from her grandparents.
In an interview with the television station CityNews Ottawa, she said: “We’re all just sitting, praying that she’s going to make it through.”
An online fundraiser set up by Ms Young for her cousin and Maya had accumulated £17,000 in donations by Wednesday afternoon.
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