A gunman killed at least 16 people in a shooting rampage in a rural community in Nova Scotia, Canada’s national broadcaster said late on Sunday, in what was among the country’s worst mass killings in recent memory.

The police said the killing spree, which began in the town of Portapique on Saturday night, ended about 12 hours later at a fuel station about 22 miles away in Enfield, north of Halifax, where the gunman died. The police would not elaborate on how he died, though witnesses told local news outlets that they heard gunfire leading up to his death.

A police officer was among those killed, officials said. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national broadcaster, citing commissioner Brenda Lucki of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the 16 figure did not include the gunman.

He was previously identified by the authorities as Gabriel Wortman, 51.

A motive for the mass shooting was not immediately clear. The police said that it did not begin as a random act but that the killings became random as the spree progressed.

Officials said Wortman, a denturist from Nova Scotia, had a relationship to some of the victims and was not known to the police.

They said one line of investigation would be whether the coronavirus pandemic had anything to do with the killing spree.

Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said the episode began on Saturday night when the police were called to a home, where they discovered dead bodies inside and outside the residence.