Student kills four in school shooting in Turkiye’s Kahramanmaras province

ANKARA: A teenage student opened fire at a middle school in southeastern Turkiye on Wednesday, killing at least four people, including three fellow students, and injuring at least 20 others, according to Kahramanmaras Governor Mukerrem Unluer.

Unluer told reporters that the dead included three students and one teacher. He said the attacker later shot and killed himself during the chaos that followed the assault.

The governor said the suspect was an eighth-grade student who entered the school carrying multiple weapons and ammunition.

“An eighth-grade student came with five weapons and seven magazines, which we believe to be his former police officer father’s — in his bag, entered two classrooms where fifth-grade students were, causing deaths and injuries indiscriminately,” Unluer said.

In Turkiye, eighth-grade students are generally 13 or 14 years old, while fifth-grade students are usually aged 10 and 11.

Unluer also said four of the injured were in critical condition and were undergoing surgery.

Second school attack in two days

The shooting marked the second attack at a school in Turkiye in as many days. On Tuesday, a former student opened fire at a school in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, wounding at least 16 people, including students and teachers, before killing himself.

School shootings are very uncommon in Turkiye, making the back-to-back incidents particularly notable.

Footage shows panic at school

Unverified video circulating after the attack appeared to show several students jumping from a second-floor window as gunfire rang out across the school grounds.

Separate unverified CCTV footage from inside the school appeared to show the attacker shooting two students who were walking along a hallway.

Television footage from outside the school on Wednesday showed ambulances arriving at the scene, while police officers and crowds gathered near the entrance.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on X that an investigation had been launched into the shooting.

The attack took place in Kahramanmaras province in southeastern Turkiye and left the school community reeling after one of the country’s rare incidents of gun violence inside an educational institution.