Nine killed in second college taking pictures in Turkey in two days | EUROtoday

A 14-year-old scholar opened fireplace at a college in southern Turkey on Wednesday, killing eight college students and a trainer and wounding 13 others.

This is the second college taking pictures within the nation in two days and the deadliest in latest reminiscence.

The attacker, an eighth-grader at Ayser Calik Secondary School within the Kahramanmaras space, entered the constructing carrying 5 weapons and 7 magazines and reached two fifth-grade lecture rooms earlier than being killed, officers stated.

Local governor Mukerrem Unluer stated the weapons had been believed to belong to the scholar’s father, a former police officer, and each dad and mom had been detained.

Six of the 13 wounded had been in intensive care, three of them in essential situation.

Interior minister Mustafa Ciftci stated the federal government didn’t take into account the taking pictures a terrorist assault however an “individual incident”, including that authorities “will take necessary precautions” with out offering particulars.

Video footage confirmed college students leaping from first-floor home windows and working from the premises.

Witnesses described scenes of panic because the assault unfolded. “The sound of gunfire was very intense,” a reporter for Turkish broadcaster NTV stated.

Tearful dad and mom gathered outdoors as information broke, with one father, Omer Erdag, telling AFP that his baby had witnessed the scene. “My child said, ‘Dad, my friend got hurt’,” he stated. “How am I going to bring my kids to this school again?”

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated he wished for a “speedy recovery to our children, our families, and our teachers.”

The taking pictures got here a day after a former scholar opened fireplace at a vocational college elsewhere in southern Turkey, wounding 16 individuals earlier than killing himself. There had been no rapid indications the 2 assaults had been linked, however collectively they’ve shaken a rustic the place mass shootings are uncommon and the place educators have spent years warning that violence in colleges is on the rise.

Last month, a former scholar stabbed a trainer to dying in a classroom at a vocational highschool within the metropolis of Istanbul, injuring one other trainer and a scholar in the identical assault.

Educators stated the sample of violence mirrored deep structural failures. Kadem Ozbay, chair of educators’ union Egitim Is, stated the rising sense of insecurity in colleges stemmed from poverty, excessive charges of gun possession, and authorities insurance policies he argued undervalued lecturers and schooling.

“When a parent sends his child to school, he trusts only in the school,” he instructed New York Times. “But people don’t have safety anymore in schools.” Another union official stated considered one of its members had taught the Wednesday attacker, describing him as “very reserved, speaking to no one, asocial”.

Unions have known as on the federal government to deploy extra safety guards, college nurses and counsellors to establish and assist troubled college students earlier than violence happens.