'It was terrifying': Tumbler Ridge's tight-knit community in shock after shooting

People in the small Canadian town of Tumbler Ridge have reacted with shock and disbelief after nine people were killed and at least 25 wounded in a shooting at a local secondary school and home.

Members of the remote community, 415 miles (667 km) northeast of the western city of Vancouver, spoke of their fear and uncertainty during the school lockdown, as no-one appeared to be aware of the magnitude of what was unfolding.

They described how close the community of just 2500 people was, and how devastated it would be by what had happened.

"I will know every victim. I've been here 19 years, and we're a small community," town mayor Darryl Krakowka told Canadian broadcaster CBC.

"I don't call them residents. I call them family," he added.

Chris Norbury, a town councillor, was as close as anyone in Tumbler Ridge to the shooting. His wife teaches at the secondary school, his daughter attends the nearby elementary school and he works at the visitor centre just a block away.

Speaking to the BBC World Service's Newsday programme, he explained how scared and anxious he felt as he waited for news of his wife.

He first realised something was wrong when his daughter's school called him to say they were in lockdown. He was able to contact his wife, who was also under lockdown, but by the time he found out - from an emergency alert - that there was an active shooter, he was unable to contact her again.

"We just had to speculate and jump into social media to see what was going on - there was a lot of speculation... but being who I am I just wanted to stay calm as best I could and wait for the facts," Norbury said.

That proved far from easy, though.

"It was terrifying, it's hard to put into words the dread and the fear that you feel knowing that a loved one is in danger," he said.

Meanwhile he was able to see emergency vehicles, including helicopters, coming and going from the school and a nearby medical centre.

Darian Quist, a grade 12 student at the school, was in a classroom with a teacher and about 15 students when the lockdown alarm sounded, though he believes he was in a different part of the school from the shooting. He and his classmates stayed there until the police escorted them out.

"For a while I didn't think anything was going on, but once everything was circulating and we realised something was wrong we got tables and barricaded the doors, and I believe we sat in there for two or two-and-a-half hours," he told CBC.

He said everyone was tense and nervous. People sent him "disturbing" photos, he said, with "blood and things like that".

"I think that's when it all set in," he said.

His mother Shelley Quist was working at the local hospital at the time. She said they only found out about the shooter half an hour after the lockdown - though she was on the phone with her son the whole time.

"It's just one of those things when you just think it's never going to happen," she said, adding: "Panic was setting in until I laid eyes on [Darian]."

Norbury said that it wasn't until after 17:00 local time - three-and-a-half hours after the lockdown was first announced - that people started to be released from the school and he was able to find out that his wife was safe.

Quist described the departure as "organised chaos". "Professionalism definitely took hold," he said.

But even then those involved did not know the full extent of what had happened until the casualty figures were revealed.

"A lot of people are shaken up right now, especially when we were told the true numbers," Darian Quist said.

Though the names of the victims have not yet been released, it is clear the whole town has been deeply affected.

Norbury said he believed he may have known some of the children involved.

"I was a children's librarian for 10 years, and knowing that these children that I likely knew, that I likely read to... these are our friends, our friends' children have been injured, lost their life, and we just have to think how to come together as a community and rely upon each other for support," he said.

He added: "Crime is incredibly low here, we've never had anything like this before. It's an incredible shock that anything like this could happen. We're such a tight-knit community, we're really like a family here."

Norbury also reflected on the effect the shooting would have on the community in the future.

"How many people will be afraid to go to school? How many will this affect for the rest of their lives? And it absolutely will, that's my fear," he said.

"If I could talk to those people, I'd say, don't let this define you. Please get help when you need help. We are strong and we are resilient and we will get through this".