An Inuit rescuer helps dig out the gymnasium

KANGIQSUALUJJUAQ, Quebec (CNN) -- Avalanche experts will investigate whether a ceremonial gun salute to welcome the New Year could have triggered a massive slow slide that killed nine people in a remote Inuit village in Quebec.

About 90 minutes before the avalanche tore through a school gymnasium in Kangiqsualujjuaq, gun shots were fired, a local ceremonial tradition. There is speculation that the shots may have loosened snow on the 500-foot (150-meter) hillside just above the school.

"It's a possibility," said Luc Harvey, chief of the Kativik regional police. "That's a tradition here. At Christmas (and New Year's) people go outside and they shoot."

Before the disaster, some parents had expressed concern about the school's location under the sheer face of a hill.

A snow-filled hallway inside the school gymnasium

"We absolutely must pull out of there," school principal Jean Leduc said. "The mountain on the side of the school is a very steep slope."

Nine people were killed -- five of whom were children under 8 -- and 25 others were injured. Twelve were airlifted to Montreal for treatment, and two were reported in critical condition Saturday.

A winter storm on Saturday hampered investigators' and social workers' flights to Kangiqsualujjuaq, 950 miles (1,530 kilometers) north of Montreal.

Nearly everyone in the village of 600, whose name means "very big bay" in the Inuktituk language, was attending the celebration at the school, which featured a square dance and a feast of caribou meat and oat cakes. Suddenly, the wall shattered with what sounded like a thunderclap.

A dog sniffs for victims

"It was like an explosion," Leduc said. "You heard an immense crack, and the wall was flying into pieces. And the next thing you knew, the gym was entirely covered in snow."

Despite snow, bitter cold and winds of 60 miles per hour (100 km/h), residents searched frantically for their loved ones, digging through the snow with whatever they could find, including copper piping and frying pans.

"They braved extreme weather conditions to rush to the aid of their neighbors," said Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. "Their prompt action no doubt saved many lives."

Reuters contributed to this report.