Grizzly attack hurts 11, some critically, including students, in Bella Coola, B.C.

By Canadian Press on November 20, 2025.

BELLA COOLA — A grizzly bear attack on elementary school students in the small B.C. central coast community of Bella Coola has critically injured two people, with two others seriously injured and seven more people treated at the scene.

B.C. Emergency Health Services says it received a call about an animal attack just before 2 p.m. on Thursday in the community about 700 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Madonna Saunderson says the attack involved several students, while the mother of a child in the elementary class says teachers fought off the attacking animal, which the Nuxalk Nation says is still on the loose.

Veronica Schooner says a lot of people tried to halt the attack, but one male teacher “got the whole brunt of it” and was among the people taken by helicopter from the scene.

She says her son, Alvarez, was “traumatized” by the attack on his friends, and three children were among those with major injuries.

Emergency Health Services spokesman Brian Twaites says in a statement that the weather conditions in the area were poor so they called for help with air transportation from the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2025.

The Canadian Press