Nine Killed in Kahramanmaraş as Turkey Suffers Second School Shooting in Two Days

A student opened fire at a middle school in Kahramanmaraş, southeastern Turkey, on Wednesday, killing nine people — eight students and one teacher — and wounding 13 others, in the deadliest school shooting the country has seen in years. The attack came just one day after a separate school shooting in the neighboring province of Şanlıurfa, marking the second such incident in Turkey in as many days. Governor Mükerrem Ünlüer confirmed the death toll at a press conference, describing the scene inside the school as one of indiscriminate violence. Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi, who also traveled to Kahramanmaraş, stated at a televised press conference that the attack was not a terrorist act but an incident of a personal nature. The shooter, estimated to be 13 or 14 years old and enrolled in the 8th grade, died at the scene following the attack.

Father's weapons carried in backpack into two classrooms Governor Ünlüer told reporters that the attacker arrived at school with five firearms and seven magazines concealed in his backpack, weapons that authorities believe belonged to his father, a former inspector of the Kahramanmaraş municipal police. The teenager entered two classrooms occupied by students approximately ten years old and opened fire indiscriminately. Of the 13 people wounded, six were placed in intensive care and three were in critical condition, according to authorities. The shooter died at the scene, though the exact circumstances remained unclear. „In the chaos, he shot himself dead. Whether that was a suicide attempt or not is not clear” — Mükerrem Ünlüer via De Standaard The father was subsequently arrested, according to the official Turkish news agency Anadolu, as cited by newsORF.at. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced on X that the public prosecutor's office of Kahramanmaraş had opened a formal investigation.

Second shooting in two days deepens alarm across Turkey The Kahramanmaraş attack followed a shooting on Tuesday at a school in Şanlıurfa, where a former student injured 16 (people injured) — wounded in Şanlıurfa school shooting one day earlier people, including ten students, four teachers, one police officer, and one canteen worker, before committing suicide, according to the Interior Ministry. Nine of those injured in the Şanlıurfa attack were still receiving hospital treatment on Wednesday when the second shooting occurred, according to reporting by stern.de citing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Grand National Assembly Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş expressed condolences to the nation. „Our heart bleeds. We express our condolences to the entire nation” — Numan Kurtulmuş via stern.de Schools across Kahramanmaraş province were ordered to remain closed on Thursday and Friday following the attack. The Turkish supervisory authority for audiovisual media prohibited television stations from broadcasting images from the scene of the attack, according to newsORF.at.

School shootings remain rare but gun laws face scrutiny School shootings are described as very rare in Turkey across multiple source articles. In May 2023, an expelled student shot a 74-year-old school principal at his former school; the attacker fled before being arrested, and the incident triggered nationwide demonstrations by thousands of teachers in Istanbul calling for better security measures. Turkey enforces strict gun ownership laws, requiring registration, a gun license, proof of psychological fitness, and a background check before a firearm can be legally held. The back-to-back incidents have drawn renewed attention to how legally held firearms can be accessed by minors within family households. The Kahramanmaraş shooter's father, a former municipal police inspector, had his weapons taken by his son without any indication authorities had been alerted beforehand. Witnesses told local media of numerous shots fired, and footage distributed by the IHA news agency showed a covered body being removed from the school in an ambulance, with crying parents gathered outside. „We have no information at all. Children were targeted” — unidentified witness via newsORF.at The Interior Minister and the Education Minister both traveled to Kahramanmaraş to visit the site of the attack, according to newsORF.at.

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