SIVEREK, Sanliurfa, April 14 (Reuters) – A teenager opened fire at a high school in Turkey’s southeastern province of Sanliurfa on Tuesday, wounding at least 16 people including students and teachers before killing himself, the province’s governor said.
The assailant, a 19-year-old former student, used a shotgun in the attack in the Siverek district, said Sanliurfa province’s governor, Hasan Sildak.
Sildak told reporters that the attacker opened fire indiscriminately, starting in the school yard before entering the building. The shooter killed himself as police attempted to apprehend him, Sildak added.
Security camera footage showed the attacker aiming and shooting people standing in the corridor. It also showed students fleeing the school as ambulances and police vehicles arrived at the scene.
A witness, who asked not to be named, said: “He started shooting at anyone who came in front of him, and then with the students’ screams, the teachers’ screams, everyone immediately scattered.”
Sildak said the attacker had no prior criminal record and that the school had previously been classified as safe by police.
The wounded were taken to hospital, with five later transferred to facilities in Sanliurfa city centre for further treatment, Sildak said.
One of those wounded, a teacher, was in serious condition, according to a hospital official.
The Interior Ministry said 10 of the wounded were students, four were teachers, one was a police officer and another a school canteen employee.
(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan and Huseyin Hayatsever; Additional reporting Aaron McNicholas; Editing by Ece Toksabay, Sharon Singleton and Aidan Lewis)
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