A shelter-in-place alert was lifted for people living west of Carstairs, Alta., on Friday morning about two hours after police issued it as they searched for two armed suspects on the loose.
In a news release at 7:44 a.m., Didsbury RCMP said they were tracking a man and a woman who they believed were carrying firearms.
Police believed the man and woman were on foot.
Damage to the gate to the Silver Willow Sporting Club was seen Friday morning, and a black hatchback car was seen being towed away from the scene.
Residents between Township Road 302 and Highway 580, and between Range Road 15 and Range Road 20, were asked to shelter in place and lock their doors. The area is located just west of Carstairs, which is about a half-hour drive north of Calgary.
Area resident Aaron Fox said he started noticing lights from a police vehicle at around 6:45 a.m.
“I went to the kitchen and out the back window, down in the coulee. I could see about four or five more police cars, so I knew something was going on,” he said.
“And then it started getting a little lighter and I could see cops walking around and stuff.”
Fox said he saw at least five officers walking along the west edge of the coulee, going towards the sporting club.
Barb Wolosiuk, owner of nearby Mountain View Pet Resort, said she received notice from a county peace officer at around 8 a.m. to make sure her doors were locked.
“We heard, like, the police cars and all of the lights and that going on across the valley, because you could see it pretty clearly,” she said.
Wolosiuk said the police activity appeared to be in the area of the sporting club, and phone conversations with her neighbours seem to corroborate that.
“I didn’t see the (police with) guns, but one of our neighbours did. She was saying that she saw them all out there trying to take down,” she said.
Other witnesses Global News spoke with said they counted 25 RCMP tactical team members carrying firearms in the area.
At 9:38 a.m., the RCMP lifted the alert and said they had the two suspects in custody.
“A more detailed media release will follow by the end of the day,” police said in a news release.
Police said they were not looking for any other suspects and there was no further threat to the public.
–with files from Doug Vaessen, Global News
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