A gunman opens fire at a high school in Turkey, wounding at least 16 before killing himself
The motive for the attack ...
A former student opened fire at a high school in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, wounding at least 16 people, before killing himself, an official said.
The 18-year-old attacker, armed with a shotgun, fired randomly inside a vocational high school in Siverek, Sanliurfa province.
He later killed himself with the same shotgun after being “cornered by police,” Gov. Hasan Sildak said.
The attack left 10 students, four teachers, a canteen employee and a police officer hurt, Sildak said.
While most of them were being treated in Siverek, five of the teachers and students were transferred to a hospital in the provincial capital because their conditions were more serious, the governor said.
The motive for the attack remains unclear. School shootings are rare in Turkey.
The attacker did not have a criminal record, Sildak said.
The school had been declared safe and no permanent police officer was assigned to protect it, he added, calling the shooting an “isolated incident.”
NTV television and other media reports said the assailant had threatened an attack on the school on social media prior to the shooting.
One student told the state-run Anadolu Agency that he and a friend jumped out of their classroom window to flee the attacker.
“He suddenly entered the classroom and fired. He fired four or five times. Two people were hit.
He then went into the next classroom,” Anadolu quoted Omer Furkan Sayar as saying.
“We first threw ourselves to the ground and then two of us jumped out of the window.”
