A school in the northern Alberta town of Lac La Biche was evacuated Thursday afternoon as officers tried to track down two men who fled police earlier that day, according to RCMP.
Police said officers tried to stop two male suspects when they drove away in a vehicle. The vehicle was stopped by police and one of the suspects was arrested with the help of a police dog. The other ran away and into Portage College, RCMP said in a media release just after 1 p.m.
Get daily National news
Officers started evacuating the building in order to do a sweep search for the person at large.
There was no perceived threat to public safety, RCMP said, but police were asking people to stay away from the area. Officers didn’t believe the suspect was armed.
A staff member inside Portage College told Global News just before noon that the school had been on lockdown for about an hour. At around 1 p.m., the staff member said police had surrounded the building and were escorting people out.
- DTES grocery store uncertain of future after spending thousands on security
- Alberta on track to see the most traffic deaths in a decade: ‘Disaster waiting to happen’
- B.C. child sexual exploitation case leads to rescue of 5 children in the Philippines
- Nick Reiner won’t face death penalty in parents’ killings, prosecutor says
It was believed the suspect was still in the building at around 1 p.m. A student who was inside said she was being told to stay in the library.
At 2:30 p.m., RCMP said the second male suspect had been taken into custody “without incident.”
Police said “the situation” at the college was over.
RCMP said no other residences or schools were placed on lockdown.
— With files from Caley Ramsay and Emily Mertz
Comments
Comments closed.
Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time.
Please see our Commenting Policy for more.