“She didn’t just go to school — she walked into a nightmare.” Under what should have been an ordinary school day, gunfire shattered the quiet. A 12-year-old girl was shot in the head and neck and is now fighting for her life in hospital. Students fled with their hands raised, guided by armed officers through corridors that only moments earlier echoed with classroom chatter. Parents waited behind flashing police lights, searching faces for answers. This is being described as Canada’s deadliest school shooting in four decades. The sirens have faded. The questions have not. This wasn’t just another headline. It was innocence interrupted — and a country forced to confront a tragedy it thought was distant.

Students evacuate with hands raised following Canada’s deadliest school shooting in 40 years

A gravely wounded 12-year-old student at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia is hanging on for dear life after being shot by a “gunperson” in a “dress” — in Canada’s deadliest school shooting in decades.

Maya Edmonds was one of at least 25 people injured in the carnage when a shooter opened fire at the school in the tight-knit community of Tumbler Ridge on Tuesday, striking her in the head and neck, her mom said.

“Today started as any other. Now, however, my 12-year-old daughter is fighting for her life while they try to repair the damage from a gunshot wound to the head. And one to the neck,” Maya’s heartbroken mother, Cia, wrote on Facebook.

“This doesn’t even feel real … I never thought I would be asking for prayers.. but please please, pray for my baby.”

The massacre — the third deadliest mass shooting in Canada’s history and the deadliest school shooting in almost four decades — unfolded Tuesday in the western province, in a small rural community about 415 miles from Vancouver.

Seven people were killed at the high school, and two other bodies were found in a nearby home, which cops say they believe had some connection to the incident.

Cops so far have only identified the shooter as a “gunperson” and a “female in a dress with brown hair,” giving rise to speculation the killer may have been transgender, but no name or age has been confirmed, and their motive remains unclear.

The shooter was found dead inside the school from a self-inflicted gunshot, cops said.

Maya is in critical care at Vancouver Children’s Hospital, her aunt, Krysta, wrote on a GoFundMe page set up in support of her family, noting that the girl’s “recovery timeline is unknown.”

So far, the site has raised over $37,000 of its $45,000 goal.

“This support will provide support for Maya through her recovery. And allow for Cia to be by her side without financial concern,” Krysta wrote.

“We will provide updates as they come. We couldn’t do it without your support.”