Canada police hunt school killer

School shootings in Canada are extremely rare

Canadian police are hunting an attacker who shot and killed a teenage boy at a school in Toronto.

Police said 15-year-old Jordan Manners died in hospital after being shot at the CW Jefferys Collegiate Institute.

Officers ordered students to remain in their classrooms for three hours as they searched the school site.

Toronto's police chief, Bill Blair, said the incident, which occurred in one of the city's poorer neighbourhoods, was "shocking".

"Students have a right to a safe school environment. It is shocking that such a crime could take place in our schools," he said.

The shooting was Toronto's 26th murder so far this year and the 13th involving a gun, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

Panic

Local media reported that the shooting followed an argument outside the school and that Jordan was followed inside and shot on school grounds.

Police said they had so far not arrested anyone nor found any weapon.

"It was panic. No one knew what to do, I was nervous, shocked. How could this happen at our school," student Anthony Shulz told the National Post newspaper.

Gun violence is lower in Canada than in neighbouring US

Anxious relatives rushed to the school on news of the shooting, voicing concern until students were able to leave the building later in the day.

The killing happened just over a month after a gunman killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech in the US, before killing himself.

It also rekindled memories of last September when a gunman ran amok in a Montreal College, killing a young woman and injuring 19 others before being shot dead.

Toronto's mayor, David Miller, said the latest shooting highlighted the need to stamp out gun crimes in the city.

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"Handguns have one purpose, and that is to kill, and it really reinforces what we've been saying for quite a while at the city," Mr Miller told Canadian broadcaster CP24.

There are seven million registered guns in Canada, including 1.2m handguns, which are restricted to police, members of gun clubs or collectors.

Firearms deaths in Canada have decreased in the past 15 years and gun violence rates in Toronto are significantly lower than in US cities of similar size.