ISTANBUL (Turkey): A gunman opened fire outside a high school in western Turkey yesterday, wounding at least eight people, including students, before being detained by police, authorities and local media reported.
The shooting occurred at around 8am local time near a vocational and technical high school in Turgutlu district, in Manisa province, near the western city of Izmir. Police and emergency medical teams were quickly dispatched to the scene, and the wounded were taken to nearby hospitals. The authorities have not disclosed their conditions.
The suspected attacker was arrested shortly after the shooting, the provincial governor’s office said. Authorities have launched judicial and administrative investigations, while the motive remains unclear.
Local media footage showed a young man carrying what appeared to be a rifle as he moved through nearby streets. Other footage showed police wrestling a man to the ground and taking him into custody as worried onlookers gathered outside the school.
The shooting came five months after two school-related attacks in Turkey that prompted widespread concern over school security.
In April, a 14-year-old opened fire at a school in Kahramanmaras province, killing a teacher and nine students aged 10 and 11. The attacker was also killed.
A day earlier, another teenager attacked his former high school in Sanliurfa province, wounding 16 people before taking his own life after being confronted by police.
Following the April attacks, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged tighter controls on gun ownership and said school safety would be a government priority.
The latest shooting also occurred shortly after authorities introduced additional security measures for the 2026-27 academic year, which began on September 14.
Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said 31,000 school grounds supervisors had been deployed for the first time. Police officers were assigned to schools considered to be at higher risk, while lower-risk schools were given police liaison officers.
Authorities also said police would conduct regular patrols around schools, inspect school buses and assess abandoned buildings near educational institutions.
The latest incident is the third school-related shooting reported in Turkey this year. – AFP
