A mass shooting at a high school in the Canadian province of British Columbia has left at least 10 people dead, including the suspected attacker, according to police.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement on Tuesday that six people were found dead in the secondary school in the small town of Tumbler Ridge, while another person died on the way to hospital.

Two other people were found dead at a home that police believe is connected to the shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.

Police did not say how many of the victims may have been minors.

The RCMP said the incident involved an “active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School” in British Columbia, and that “an individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased with what appears to be a self‑inflicted injury”.

Two people were “airlifted to hospital with serious or life‑threatening injuries”, and some 25 others were “being assessed and triaged at the local medical centre for non‑life‑threatening injuries”, the RCMP added.

All remaining students and staff were safely evacuated from the school, police said.

RCMP Northern District commander Ken Floyd told reporters that investigators had identified a female suspect but would not release a name. A public alert described the shooter as a female in a dress with brown hair

Police also remain tight-lipped about the age of the victims and the weapons used in the attack, citing privacy concerns and an ongoing investigation by the RCMP’s Major Crimes Unit.

Darian Quist, a grade 12 student at the school, told Canada’s CBC Radio West that he and other students “got tables and barricaded the doors” for over two hours during the mass shooting