Canadian Prime Minister mourns victims of mass shooting

The suspect in a Canada school shooting was an 18-year-old who had a history of police visits to her home to check on her mental health, authorities said Wednesday, a day after the attack that killed eight people in a remote part of British Columbia.

Police said Jesse Van Rootselaar was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted wound following the assault on a school in the small mountain community of Tumbler Ridge.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. She had a history of mental health contacts with police, he said.

The motive was unclear.

Police initially said nine people were killed Tuesday, but McDonald clarified Wednesday that there were eight fatalities. McDonald said the discrepancy arose from a victim who was airlifted to a medical center. Authorities mistakenly thought that person had died.

More than 25 people were wounded.

The town of 2,700 people in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta.

Police said the victims included a 39-year-old teacher and five students, ages 12 to 13.

Earlier in the day a visibly upset Prime Minister Mark

Carney promised Canadians would get through what he called a "terrible" shooting.

Carney, who has postponed a trip to Europe, said he had

ordered flags on all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days.

"We will get through this. We will learn from this," he told

reporters, at one point looking close to tears.