A violent shooting incident has shaken a southeastern Turkish community, after a former high school student opened fire on campus Wednesday, leaving at least 16 people wounded before taking his own life. Local authorities confirmed the details of the attack, which unfolded on the grounds of Ahmet Koyuncu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Siverek District at approximately 9:30 a.m. local time, or 6:30 a.m. GMT.
Local governor Hasan Şıldak, the region’s top local official, told reporters that the attacker was in his late teens, who carried an illegally obtained shotgun onto the campus and began firing indiscriminately at people inside the school grounds before turning the weapon on himself. Among the 16 injured victims are 10 students, four teachers, one cafeteria employee and one responding police officer. Five of the wounded have been transferred to larger medical facilities in other regions for more advanced treatment, while the remaining injured receive care at local hospitals. Immediately after the shooting, authorities ordered a full evacuation of the entire campus, and have launched a formal criminal investigation into the circumstances of the attack.
In a surprising statement, Şıldak noted that the 17 to 18-year-old attacker had no prior criminal record on file with Turkish law enforcement, and that the school had long been classified as a safe facility by local police. Witness testimony collected by Turkish news agency IHA has painted a chaotic picture of the attack. One unnamed witness described the gunman entering the school’s front gate without warning, pulling out a long, pump-action shotgun and immediately opening fire in all directions.
“He immediately started shooting left and right. Then he fired towards the main school building. Then he ran inside. He started shooting at anyone who came in front of him, and then with the students’ screams, the teachers’ screams, everyone immediately scattered,” the witness recalled in their account.
One injured student, Ömer Furkan Sayar, spoke to Turkey’s state-owned public broadcaster TRT from his hospital bed, describing how the gunman moved through at least two occupied classrooms during the rampage, including his own. “First we threw ourselves to the ground, then two of us jumped out of the window. He didn’t say anything to us, he just came in and started shooting,” Sayar said.
As of Thursday morning, authorities have not released a possible motive for the attack, and the investigation is ongoing.