One woman was killed and 19 people were wounded yesterday when a opened fire on students at a further education college in Montreal, Canada's second largest city. The gunman also died.
Montreal paramedics confirmed 20 people were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from gunshot wounds to emotional shock following the shooting at Dawson College. One woman died in hospital from wounds sustained during the attack, officials confirmed. "We heard that probably one of the three that had been transported to the [Montreal] General [Hospital] died later on," said Andr Champagne, a spokesman with Urgences Sant, the city's ambulance service.
Hospital officials said the other two critical patients were undergoing emergency surgery late Wednesday.
The suspected gunman was shot dead by police minutes after he opened fire at the students at Dawson College, an English-language university preparatory college serving about 10,000 students located in the heart of downtown Montreal.
Reporters said from Montreal that police received a call about the shooting just before 1 p.m. local time. Witnesses heard shots at about 12:45 p.m. that lasted for 30 minutes.
A police officer outside the college saw the gunman enter the building, and police quickly arrived at the scene. The suspect was shot dead as he tried to leave the school.
Montreal was the scene of Canada's worst mass shooting. Fourteen women died when a gunman named Marc Lepine opened fire at the Ecole Polytechnic in December 1989, before shooting himself. He left a note blaming women for ruining his life. There was another shooting in 1992 when a Concordia University professor killed four colleagues.
Montreal has always had a darker edge than other Canadian cities, with police frequently battling spasms of violence between rival motorcycle gangs.
