The death toll from a school shooting in southern Turkey’s Kahramanmaraş province has risen to nine, comprising eight students and one teacher, Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said on Wednesday.
The attack took place at around 1:30 p.m. at a secondary school operating on a double-shift schedule, with the shooting occurring as morning students were leaving the building, Çiftçi told reporters outside Kahramanmaraş University Hospital.
He said the assailant was a 14-year-old eighth-grade student at the same school who brought firearms from home and opened fire randomly after entering two classrooms.
A total of 13 people were injured in the attack, Çiftçi said, adding that six of the wounded were in intensive care, three of whom were in critical condition.
Interior Minister Çiftçi was joined at the hospital by Justice Minister Akın Gürlek, Education Minister Yusuf Tekin and Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu, who traveled to the region following the shooting and received briefings on the condition of the wounded and the ongoing investigation.
Kahramanmaraş Governor Mükerrem Ünlüer said earlier in the day that a teacher and three students were killed in the attack. The attacker also died during the incident.
“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,” Ünlüer told reporters.
The attacker was the son of a former police officer, Ünlüer said, adding that the suspect was carrying five guns and seven magazines.
“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.
Police detained the ex-student’s father, Uğur Mersinli, the official Anadolu news agency reported.
Footage released by the IHA private news agency showed a person, body and face covered, being evacuated in an ambulance, as well as tearful parents who had rushed to the school in the southern province’s main city of Kahramanmaraş.
Another video, taken by a resident of a nearby building, verified by Agence France-Presse, shows students jumping from a first-floor window of the school to escape the gunfire, while dozens of others flee through the courtyard.
Some 15 gunshots can be heard in the one-and-a-half-minute video.
Police increased security around the building, and television footage showed ambulances in the area.
The incident prompted the interior and education ministers to travel to the city.
‘Will be held accountable’
Justice Minister Gürlek said prosecutors had launched an immediate investigation into the shooting.
On Tuesday an ex-student opened fire with a shotgun at his former high school in Siverek district of Şanlıurfa province, wounding 16 people before killing himself in a showdown with police. Ten students were among the casualties.
Footage shows students attempting to escape a shooting in the Kurdish province of Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey that killed at least four, according to the governor pic.twitter.com/IabMPvsuAA
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Speaking to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in parliament, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised that those found to have been negligent or at fault “will certainly be held accountable” over the school shootings.
Police detained one suspect after Tuesday’s attack and suspended four officials, Erdoğan said. The school was ordered closed for four days.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel called for stronger security measures.
“At this point, it is clearly evident that violence in schools can no longer be explained as isolated incidents,” he wrote on X.
“This issue has turned into a growing and deepening security vulnerability.”
Measures such as ensuring full control at school entrances and exits, increasing the number of security personnel, strengthening camera systems, intensifying police patrols around schools and keeping emergency crisis plans ready are now essential, he added.
“The security of schools is entrusted to our state. Any negligence or deficiency in this regard can no longer be excused,” Özel said.
School shootings in Turkey had been rare until this week. In May 2024 a former student killed a private high school principal in Istanbul with a firearm five months after he was expelled.
Turkey has strict gun laws that require licensing, registration, mental and criminal background checks and severe penalties for illegal possession.
Agence France-Presse with reporting from Turkish Minute