A 14-year-old student opened fire at a middle school in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, killing nine individuals—eight fellow students and one teacher—and injuring 13 others, officials confirmed. This tragic event marks the second school shooting in Turkey within just two days.
The attack took place in Kahramanmaras province. Turkey’s Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci stated that six of the wounded remain in critical condition. Earlier, Kahramanmaras Governor Mukerrem Unluer revealed that the shooter took his own life amid the chaos.
Unluer explained that the eighth-grade student entered the school carrying five firearms and seven magazines, believed to have belonged to his father, a former police officer. The assailant targeted two classrooms filled with fifth-grade students, who are typically 10 or 11 years old in Turkey, causing indiscriminate casualties.
School shootings are extremely rare in Turkey. When questioned about potential measures following these incidents, Minister Ciftci assured that necessary precautions would be implemented but did not provide further details.
Turkey enforces strict gun laws, permitting firearm ownership only for licensed individuals aged over 21. Nevertheless, firearms are relatively common, especially among security personnel authorized to carry weapons.
Unverified footage circulated online showed several students fleeing by jumping from a second-story window as gunshots rang out. Additional unverified CCTV footage captured the attacker shooting two students in a hallway.
Media coverage from the scene depicted ambulances arriving while police and crowds gathered outside the school gates.
In a related incident on Tuesday, a former student opened fire at a school in Sanliurfa, another southeastern province, injuring at least 16 people, including students and teachers, before committing suicide.
