13-year-old student kills 9, wounds 13 in Turkey school shooting

Panic tore through a school in تركيا’s southern Kahramanmaras province when a 13-year-old opened fire, killing nine people and wounding 13 in an attack that sent students scrambling for safety and leaping from windows, officials said. It was the country’s second school shooting in two days.

The assault took place in Kahramanmaras province in the south, a region in a country where mass school shootings have historically been rare.

“We regret to report nine deaths (…) and 13 wounded. Six of them are currently in intensive care, three of whom are in critical condition,” Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said in a statement, raising an earlier toll that had put the number of dead at four and the injured at 20.

“A student came to school with guns that we believe belonged to his father in his backpack. He entered two classrooms and opened fire randomly, causing injuries and deaths,” Kahramanmaras province governor Mukerrem Unluer told reporters earlier in the day.

“We suspect he may have taken his father’s weapons,” the governor said.

“He shot himself. It is not yet clear whether this was suicide or happened amid the chaos,” he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised that those found to be at fault would be held accountable

Police detained the father of the former student, Ugur Mersinli, according to the official Anadolu news agency.

Video distributed by private news agency IHA showed a person with their body and face covered being taken away by ambulance, while distraught parents who had rushed to the school gathered in Kahramanmaras, the main city of the southern province.

Another video, filmed by a resident in a nearby building and verified by AFP, captured students jumping from a first-floor school window to escape the gunfire as dozens more ran through the courtyard.

Roughly 15 shots can be heard in the one-and-a-half-minute footage.

Police tightened security around the school, while television images showed ambulances stationed nearby.

The shooting also prompted both the interior minister and the education minister to travel to the city.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said prosecutors had immediately opened an investigation into the attack.

‘Security vulnerability’

The bloodshed followed a shooting a day earlier, when a former student opened fire with a shotgun at his old high school in the Siverek district of Sanliurfa province, also in the centre of the country.

That gunman wounded 16 people before taking his own life during a confrontation with police. Ten of those hurt were students.

Addressing lawmakers from the ruling AKP in parliament, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said anyone found negligent or otherwise responsible over the school shootings “will certainly be held accountable”.

One suspect was detained after yesterday’s attack and four officials were suspended from duty, Mr Erdogan said. Authorities also ordered the school shut for four days.

Main opposition CHP leader Ozgur Ozel called for wider and tougher security measures.

“At this point, it is clearly evident that violence in schools can no longer be explained by isolated incidents,” he wrote on X.

“This issue has turned into a growing and deepening security vulnerability,” he said.

He said steps such as full control at school entrances and exits, more security personnel, stronger camera systems, increased police patrols around schools and ready-to-deploy emergency crisis plans had become essential.

“The security of schools is entrusted to our state. No negligence or deficiency in this regard can be excused anymore,” Mr Ozel said.

School shootings had been uncommon in Turkey until this week. In May 2024, a former student shot dead the principal of a private high school in Istanbul, five months after being expelled.

Turkey has strict gun laws requiring licences and registration, along with mental health and criminal background checks and heavy penalties for illegal possession.