A shooting has occurred at a high school in the southeastern Turkish province of Kahramanmaraş. Initially, five people were reported dead, but the death toll has since risen to nine – eight students and a teacher – and twenty people were injured.
This is reported by the Turkish service of CNN, citing the governor of the region, Mükerrem Unluer.
According to the official, the attacker was an eighth-grader who came to school with five guns, which law enforcement officials believe he took from his father, a former police officer. The attacker first fired into the air in the schoolyard, then moved inside the building.
The shooter died. According to the preliminary version of law enforcement, he may have committed suicide. The attacker's parents were taken into custody by the police.
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said three deputy chief prosecutors and four prosecutors have been assigned to the investigation. Gurlek also said they have imposed a ban on publishing information about the incident.
The previous day, on April 14, a similar incident occurred in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, when an attacker entered a school and opened fire indiscriminately with a pump-action shotgun. The shooter has been identified as 19-year-old former student Omer Ket. The provincial governor said the attacker committed suicide after the shooting.