Two dead in shooting at western Canadian sawmill, suspect held

By Nicole Mordant VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Two people are dead after a shooting at a sawmill in British Columbia on Wednesday, the BC Coroners Service said, and police said a 47-year-old male suspect was in custody. Police said four people had been shot and had been taken to hospital. The coroner said that shortly after 7 a.m. (10.00 a.m. ET), two people were taken to hospital by ambulance from the Western Forest Products Inc mill in Nanaimo, a city of about 90,000 on Vancouver Island. Both were pronounced dead on arrival. Police said they received several calls early in the morning about shots being fired at the mill. The suspect was arrested without incident and police said it appeared that he acted alone. The suspect is a resident of Nanaimo and initial indications are that "there may be a connection between the suspect and the company," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. The Globe and Mail newspaper said the suspect was a former employee of the sawmill. About 75 people work at the mill. A call to Western Forest Products was not immediately returned. (Additional reporting by Cameron French in Toronto; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and James Dalgleish)