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A shooting that sent four people to hospital and another gun-related incident forced thousands of students at two Montreal-area colleges to go into lockdown on Friday.
At 5:30 p.m. local time (2230 GMT), shots rang out in a park opposite Montmorency College in the Montreal suburb of Laval, police spokeswoman Genevieve Major told AFP.
Four people who were shot took shelter in the college and were later shifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The college, home to about 10,000 students and faculty, remained on lockdown until evening as police combed the area in search of the gunman.
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Mayor Stefan Bauer tweeted that a police operation was ongoing, and television footage showed parents of students crowding the roads around the college after rushing to the scene.
Earlier, a 19-year-old man wearing bulletproof clothing was arrested at a junior college 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Montreal and charged with making threats.
Students and staff at Cegep Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu told local media that they had been ordered to barricade themselves in classrooms and turn off the lights for most of the day, while a police operation took place outside.
“In the beginning we were very scared,” student Alejandra Montequin told Canadian broadcaster Global News. “It was very tense and people were talking to their parents.”
Quebec Public Security Minister Francois Bonnardel said in a Twitter post that students in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu “experienced a difficult situation today.”
“I am relieved at the turn of events and will wait for the results of the police investigation to fully understand what happened,” he said.
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