Turkey: Several pupils injured in shooting outside school
Footage posted online showed a male carrying a rifle near the schoolImage: DHAAdvertisementA shooting near a high school in Turkey's Manisa province resulted in at least 11 injured pupils, two of whom were in critical condition on Tuesday, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said.
The shooter, a pupil at the school, was arrested together with both of his parents and his grandfather.
The suspect is said to have taken the weapon from his grandparents' house, with his grandfather believed to have had a licence for it.
Local authorities said the attack took place at the Inci Uzmez Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in the Turgutlu district at about 08:00am local time (07:00 CET).
The motive for the shooting is also under investigation. Some reports suggest the student had suffered from bullying.
"When the security of our children is the issue, it is not possible for any negligence, any irresponsibility to be overlooked," the minister posted on his X account.
"The circumstances under which the child obtained the gun used in the attack, the conditions of the weapon's storage, the parents' obligations regarding care and supervision, and allegations of bullying prior to the incident are being investigated thoroughly and from multiple angles," Gurlek added.
Footage posted online showed a male carrying a rifle near the school, while police told families to stay away from the area.
School shootings are rare in Turkey, but this year alone saw two back-to-back shootings that shocked the nation.
Two school shootings that took place in April resulted in the tightening of gun controls and the increase of security measures at educational facilities as the academic year started last week.
Several students and their teacher were killed in one of the attacks, with the other resulting in 16 people being injured.
According to Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci, 31,000 school supervisors and police officers on duty were assigned to school seen as being at risk, as per a new measure introduced only on Monday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded to the latest shooting attack by promising even tighter gun controls.
"When we look at similar attacks around the world, especially in the United States, we see one of the perpetrators' aims is to terrorise society," the Turkish leader said.
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