Sixteen people, mostly students, were injured by gunfire on Tuesday at a technical high school in the province of Sanliurfa in southeastern Turkey, as announced by the local governor. Twelve people “are currently receiving care,” said Governor Hasan Sildak, who visited the scene.
The assailant, a former student of the school who graduated in 2007, turned the weapon on himself and committed suicide, the governor added. According to the public channel TRT citing the governor’s office, ten students and four teachers are among the injured, with the severity of their condition unspecified.
“He first randomly fired in the courtyard, then inside the school,” according to the private DHA news agency and several Turkish media outlets. Images aired by local media show students fleeing their school, with numerous police officers and at least one armored vehicle deployed along with ambulances.
“He first randomly fired in the courtyard, then inside the school,” reported a witness cited by the IHA private news agency. Such incidents are relatively rare in Turkey where, according to estimates from a local foundation, tens of millions of firearms are in circulation, most of them illegally.
