Canadian prime minister Mark Carney is to join mourners in Tumbler Ridge on Friday, as authorities and relatives released details of the five children and assistant teacher killed by a shooter in the remote mining town’s high school.

Carney will attend a vigil in Tumbler Ridge in memory of the victims, and he invited leaders from all political parties to join him in the town, the site of the country’s deadliest mass shooting in years.

Among the dead was 12-year-old Kylie Smith, whose family remembered her as “the light in our family”.

“She loved her family, friends, and going to school,” her family said in a statement. “She was a talented artist and had dreams of going to art school in the big city of Toronto. Rest in paradise, sweet girl, our family will never be the same without you.”

Kylie’s father, Lance Younge, recounted how he spent six hours walking around the local recreation center where students were reuniting with their families trying to learn what happened to his daughter.

Younge told CTV News: “I went home not knowing where my daughter was until a high school kid … came here and told us her story about trying to save my daughter’s life,” he said.

The family of 12-year-old victim Zoey Benoit described her as “resilient, vibrant, smart, caring and the strongest little girl you could meet”.

Peter Schofield, whose grandson, 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield, was killed, shared his grief in a Facebook post, saying: “Everything feels so surreal. The tears just keep flowing.”

Abel Mwansa Sr, the father of 12-year-old Abel Mwansa Jr wrote on Facebook that he was “broken” seeing his son’s body “lifeless”.

He added: “Seeing you leaving the house with that beautiful smile while going to Tumbler Ridge high school was so refreshing … I saw a bright future, a leader, an engineer, also a scientist in you.”

Sarah Lampert, whose 12-year-old daughter Ticaria was among those killed, told reporters: “She just wanted to bring sunshine to everything and everyone she ever touched.

“I now have to figure out how to live life without her.”

Authorities on Thursday identified the remaining victim as assistant teacher Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39.

The suspect’s mother – 39-year-old mother, Jennifer Jacobs, also known as Jennifer Strang – and 11-year-old stepbrother Emmett Jacobs were found dead at the family home nearby, while the suspected shooter – identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar – was found at the school with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police have said they were called on multiple occasions to the home of the teenage suspect behind one of Canada’s deadliest school shootings after concerns were raised regarding mental health problems and weapons.

Dwayne McDonald, a deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP): “Police had attended that residence on multiple occasions over the past several years dealing with concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect,” McDonald said. On different occasions the suspect had been apprehended under the country’s mental health act for assessment and follow-up, he added.

McDonald also said that at least one of the interactions with police related to weapons. “Police have attended that residence in the past, approximately a couple of years ago, where firearms were seized under the criminal code,” he said. “At a later point in time, the lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for those firearms to be returned and they were.”

The suspect had a firearms licence that had expired in 2024 and did not have any firearms registered in her name, he said.

Trent Ernst, publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines, the town’s biweekly newspaper, said one of the biggest frustrations in the community was the lack of medical support and in particular mental health services, in the town which lies more than 1,000km (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver

“The majority of people that I’ve talked to are sad more at the fact that Tumbler Ridge doesn’t have the level of support for mental health and health services in general,” he said.

“Right now, there are five mental health nurses in town. But this is the exception, and it’s an exceptional situation. There are times where we’ll go months, if not years, without having anybody in mental health services in town,” he said.

Mourners braved frigid cold on Wednesday night to honour the victims, with Mayor Darryl Krakowka telling them, “It’s OK to cry.”

Krakowka described the town as “one big family,” and encouraged people to reach out and support each other, especially the families of those who died in the attack. The community must support victims’ families “forever,” not only in the days and weeks to come, he said.

With Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

Authorities in Japan have seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its captain in a move that is likely to inflame an ongoing diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing.

The seizure, which occurred on Thursday about 170km from the south-western port city of Nagasaki, came after the skipper refused an order to stop for an onboard inspection, according to media reports.

A Japanese fisheries agency vessel intercepted the Chinese boat and its 11 crew after spotting it in Japan’s exclusive economic zone – an area within 200 nautical miles (370km) of its coastline.

It is the first time the agency has seized a Chinese fishing boat since 2022, and the first incident of its kind involving any foreign fishing vessel this year. In 2025 it inspected a Taiwanese and South Korean vessel as part of a crackdown on illegal fishing.

The Chinese boat’s 47-year-old skipper was arrested on suspicion of attempting to evade an onboard inspection by a Japanese fisheries control officer. The Nikkei business newspaper said the vessel appeared to have been fishing for mackerel.

“The vessel’s captain was ordered to stop for an inspection by a fisheries inspector, but [it] failed to comply and fled,” the agency said in a statement. “Consequently, the captain was arrested.”

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Minoru Kihara, told reporters on Friday: “We will continue to take resolute action in our enforcement activities to prevent and deter illegal fishing operations by foreign vessels.”

China’s foreign ministry has yet to comment on the incident, which comes at a tense time for bilateral ties, weeks after Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, sparked a furious row over the future of Taiwan.

Speaking to MPs in November, Takaichi said Japan could become militarily involved in the event of an attempted Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Takaichi, who is regarded as a China hawk, said her country’s self-defence forces could deployed if a crisis in the Taiwan Strait created a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan.

The remarks, which she has refused to withdraw, prompted Beijing to call on Chinese nationals not to travel to Japan as tourists or students, and led to the cancellation of cultural events.

The dispute is also thought to be behind the decision not to send giant pandas to Japan – a goodwill gesture in place since the countries normalised diplomatic ties in 1972 – after the departure of two of the animals from a Tokyo zoo last month.

China and Japan are also embroiled in a longstanding territorial dispute that has been exacerbated by the actions of fishers. In 2010, the arrest of the captain of a Chinese boat near the disputed Senkaku islands triggered a major diplomatic row. The captain, whose boat had collided with a Japanese inspection vessel, was later released without charge.

Recent media reports claimed that the government in Tokyo had privately urged Japanese fishers to steer clear of the Senkakus to avoid provoking China. The uninhabited islands, which are surrounded by rich fishing grounds, are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu.

Officials in Japan, whose westernmost island Yonaguni lies just 110km from Taiwan, believe a crisis surrounding the self-governed democracy could quickly threaten Japanese security.

China insists that Taiwan is part of its territory and has not ruled out force to achieve “reunification”.

The Taiwanese president, Lai Ching-te, warned this week that other parts of the region would be targeted by China if it succeeded in seizing Taiwan.

Beijing would become “more aggressive, undermining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and the rules-based international order”, he said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

“The next countries under threat would be Japan, the Philippines and others in the Indo-Pacific region, with repercussions eventually reaching the Americas and Europe.”

In response to Takaichi’s comments, Beijing conducted joint air drills with Russia, and in December jets from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier twice locked radar on Japanese aircraft in international waters near the nawa.

Takaichi, whose Liberal Democratic party won last week’s lower house elections by a landslide – partly on the back of strong public support for her stance on China – said this week she was “open to dialogue” with Beijing.

China’s foreign ministry said talks could not take place as long as Takaichi continued to choose “confrontation”.

“If Japan truly wants to develop a strategic and mutually beneficial relationship with China, it’s very easy and clear: withdraw Takaichi’s erroneous remarks about Taiwan,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

The World Health Organization said on Friday that a woman had died in northern Bangladesh in January after contracting the deadly Nipah virus infection.

The case in Bangladesh, where Nipah cases are reported almost every year, follows two Nipah virus cases identified in neighbouring India, which has already prompted stepped-up airport screenings across Asia.

The patient in Bangladesh – aged between 40 and 50 – developed symptoms consistent with Nipah virus on 21 January, including fever and headache followed by hypersalivation, disorientation and convulsion, the WHO added.

She died a week later and was confirmed the day after to be infected with the virus.

The person had no travel history but had a history of consuming raw date palm sap.

The WHO said all 35 people who had contact with the patient were being monitored and had tested negative for the virus, and no further cases had been detected to date.

Nipah is an infection that spreads mainly through products contaminated by infected bats, such as fruit. It can be fatal in up to 75% of cases, but it does not spread easily between people.

Countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Pakistan implemented temperature screenings at airports after India said cases of the virus had been found in West Bengal.

The WHO said the risk of international disease spread was considered low and that it did not recommend any travel or trade restrictions based on current information.

In 2025, four laboratory-confirmed fatal cases were reported in Bangladesh.

There are currently no licensed medicines or vaccines specific for the infection.