Turkey is reeling from a pair of consecutive school shooting incidents that have sent shockwaves across the nation, leaving multiple people dead and dozens injured just 24 hours apart. The deadliest of the two attacks unfolded on Wednesday at a public middle school in the southern Turkish province of Kahramanmaras, where a 14-year-old student opened fire inside two classrooms, according to senior Turkish officials.
Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci confirmed that the attack left nine people dead and another 13 wounded. As of Thursday morning, six of those injured remained in critical condition, local authorities updated. Provincial governor Mukerrem Unluer shared details on the attacker’s arsenal, confirming the teen carried five firearms and seven extra ammunition magazines to the campus. All weapons used in the attack are believed to belong to the shooter’s father, a retired local police officer. State broadcaster TRT identified the attacker as Isa Aras Mersinli, and confirmed that law enforcement has taken his father into custody for questioning as part of the ongoing investigation.
The 14-year-old gunman was also killed during the incident, but authorities have not yet confirmed whether he died by suicide or was fatally intervened by responding police officers. Investigators have also not established a clear motive for the attack as of the latest updates.
This mass shooting came just one day after another school attack in Sanliurfa, a neighboring province in southern Turkey. In that earlier incident, a former student opened fire at a local high school, wounding 16 people – the vast majority of whom were students – before taking his own life. The AP had initially circulated an earlier audio report that incorrectly cited a lower death toll for the Kahramanmaras attack, which was later updated by official Turkish sources to reflect the current nine-fatality count.
Before this week, targeted school shootings were extremely rare in Turkey, a statistic that makes the two consecutive attacks even more alarming for the public. In the wake of the Kahramanmaras shooting, Turkish authorities implemented a media ban on the distribution of graphic, traumatic imagery from the attack site, issuing a formal warning to all domestic media organizations that coverage must be limited exclusively to official statements from public authorities.
As news of the attack spread on Wednesday, hundreds of panicked parents flooded the campus in Kahramanmaras’ Onikisubat district, desperate to confirm the safety of their children, according to reports from private Turkish broadcaster NTV. Response teams including emergency medical workers and law enforcement have secured the campus, and investigations into both attacks are ongoing.