MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — A grizzly bear attack on a school group in a remote part of Canada injured 11 people, including children as young as nine, police said Friday, with two of the injured reportedly in critical condition.

The attack happened Thursday afternoon in the Bella Coola area of British Columbia province, said Corporal Madonna Saunderson, regional spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“Several people were injured by the bear. Injuries are described as serious,” she told AFP.

Saunderson said she did not have details about what the group was doing prior to the attack, or what might have provoked the animal, but said it occurred in an area called the Old Trail.

The Nuxalk First Nation said the attack impacted their community, posting on Facebook Thursday that there was an “aggressive bear in the area.”

The Nuxalk Nation’s school, Acwsalcta, said on Facebook that it was closed Friday “due to the bear incident.”

Veronica Schooner told the Canadian Press (CP) that her son was in the group that was attacked but he was not injured.

“He said that bear ran so close to him, but it was going after somebody else,” she told CP.

The British Columbia Emergency Health Service reported a total of 11 injuries — including two people critically hurt, two with serious injuries, and seven others who did not require hospitalisation, according to Canadian media.

It was not immediately clear if children were among those critically injured.

Late Thursday, the Nuxalk Nation reported that the bear remained at large, urging residents to stay indoors.

Reached by phone Friday, the Indigenous nation’s administrative office declined to confirm whether a stay-indoor order remained active.

Saunderson told AFP that the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service, a wildlife body, had taken over the investigation.

The conservation service could not immediately be reached for comment on whether the bear had been found.