Nine people were killed and at least 25 more were injured after a mass shooting in the community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

Darian Quist, a Grade 12 student at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, and his mother Shelley Quist, spoke to CBC Radio West host Sarah Penton about what happened.

Darian said shortly after he got to his class at 1:30 p.m. local time, an alarm sounded in the hallways with instructions to close the doors because of a lockdown.

He said the doors were closed for a while, when he and his classmates realized something was wrong.

He said he was receiving photos on his phone from the scene.

“We got tables and barricaded the doors” for over two hours, he said, until police arrived to escort them out of the school.

Once outside, he met up with his mother at the community centre a few hundred metres away.

In a statement sent to CBC News, the chair of the parent advisory council (PAC) for Tumbler Ridge Elementary and Tumbler Ridge Secondary urged families to check in with their kids after the shooting.

Nicole Noksana also said that the community should rely on official information and respect the privacy of those affected as more details emerged.

“There are no words that can ease the fear and pain that events like this cause in a school community,” she wrote.

Darian said Tumbler Ridge, which has students from Grades 7 to 12, is a small school. He estimates there are only about 20 or so students in his graduating class.

“The reality of it all is starting to set in,” he said. “I believe I knew somebody, but everything is still very fresh.”

Darian said the school issued a statement saying it would be working with the RCMP to help students reintegrate once school resumes. He said the situation is “almost surreal.”

“It felt like I was somewhere that I had only seen across a TV.”

Asked if he had anything to say to the community of Tumbler Ridge, Darian said people should “hold each other close.”

“We are going to be able to get through this,” he said.

Shelley Quist said while she was home, she’d heard several students were being escorted out of the school.

Through her phone, she could hear police “kicking” her son’s classroom door down.

“That’s when I left home,” she said. “We live very close; a block away from the community centre. I literally almost ran over there.”

She said she didn’t accept that her son was OK until she actually saw him.

Darian Quist’s mother Shelley said she was at work when someone asked if she knew what was happening at the high school.

From her office at the hospital, a short distance away, she could see “RCMP everywhere, fire, ambulances.” She said one of her coworkers had to stop her from running to the school herself.

“There was an RCMP crouched down in our parking lot with his gun drawn,” she said.

Shelley said that that moment was when she called Darian and told him to keep her on the phone.

She said her employer told anyone with kids to go home, since there was an ongoing active shooter situation. She said she got home and locked the door, and had stayed on the phone with Darian the whole time.