Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers have been shot and killed during a raid on a marijuana-growing operation in rural Alberta.
A suspect in the shootout inside a large farm building that police were investigating also died when he turned his rifle on himself, the RCMP in Alberta said.
In the late morning, the officers, armed with handguns, entered a large metal hut as part of a stakeout that began the night before when they came under fire from what police said was a man armed with a rifle.
In response, the force called in its SWAT team and major crime units and closed the airspace over the area. It requested the Edmonton city police department helicopter as well as armoured personnel vehicles from Edmonton's armed forces base.
In mid-afternoon, police surrounding and stormed the building only to find the bodies of the officers and the suspect. The suspect may have entered to find the officers inside, then opened fire, police said said.
"The loss of four officers is unprecedented in recent history in Canada. I'm told you have to go back to about 1885 in the RCMP history during the Northwest Rebellion to have a loss of this magnitude," a police spokesman told reporters. "It's devastating."
Police have been cracking down on illicit marijuana "grow-ops" that have sprung up across Alberta. Many of the operations targeted are said to be connected with organised crime.
The federal government has angered police organisations and US officials by planning to introduce legislation that would decriminalise marijuana possession.