College attacker 'neutralised'
2006-09-13 22:19
Montreal - At least one gunman dressed
in a black trenchcoat opened fire in a downtown Montreal
college on Wednesday, and early reports said four people had
died.
Students fled in panic from the building, and eyewitnesses
reported blood on its entry steps, and inside the cafeteria
where many of the shots were fired.
"It was the most scary thing that has ever happened to me,"
student Michael Boyer told CBC Television.
"We ran out of the
building as a SWAT team was coming in.
"They were screaming
'Where is he? Where is he?'
"And when you have 20 police running
at you with guns you really know that your life is in danger."
Hospital officials told local television stations that 12
people had been injured and six were in critical condition.
RDI Television quoted unofficial sources as saying that one
gunman had turned his weapon on himself and committed suicide,
while a second had been shot and killed by police.
This could
not be confirmed, and some police officers at the scene said
they suspected there was only a lone gunman.
Suspect 'neutralised'
"A suspect has been neutralised, which means he is not
shooting any more," said Ian LaFreniere, a police spokesperson.
The shooting took place in and around Dawson College, a
school with about 10 000 students between the ages of 16 and 19
in the heart of Montreal, Canada's second biggest city.
It triggered memories of the 1989 massacre at the Ecole
Polytechnique de Montreal, where a gunman killed 14 women
before killing himself, as well as of the 1999 Columbine
massacre in Colorado, where two teenagers killed 12 other
students and a teacher before killing themselves.
The Ecole Polytechnique gunman, Marc Lepine, 25, left
behind a three-page letter claiming that feminists had ruined
his life and naming 19 high profile Quebec women he wanted to
kill.
'At least 20 shots'
Robert Soroka, a professor at Dawson College, told Reuters
he was in his fourth floor office when heard shots being fired.
He immediately ran down the hall and told teachers to keep
their students in classrooms and close the doors.
"This could have been a very bad situation, if it had
happened five minutes later when the students would have been
exiting their classrooms during the changeover," he said.
Soroka said the shooting began at 12:45 (16:45 GMT) and
shots continued to be fired for about 30 minutes.
He said he
heard at least 20 shots.