Teen Gunman Kills Nine at Kahramanmaraş Middle School in Deadliest School Shooting in Modern Turkey

Nine people were killed and 13 wounded when a teenage student opened fire at his middle school in southern Turkey on Wednesday, in what officials say is the deadliest school shooting in the country’s modern history. The attacker, an eighth-grade pupil at the school, died by suicide at the scene.

The shooting took place at Ayser Çalık Secondary School in the Onikişubat district of Kahramanmaraş province at about 1:30 p.m. local time, according to Turkish and international media reports. Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftci said the dead included eight students and one teacher. Hospital and government briefings said six of the injured were in serious or critical condition.

Authorities identified the gunman only as an eighth-grade student, about 13 or 14 years old, enrolled at Ayser Çalık. Provincial officials said he shot himself during the attack before police reached him. Prosecutors have not released a motive, and investigators were still working to formally identify all of the victims.

Kahramanmaraş Governor Mükerrem Ünlüer said the boy arrived at school carrying an arsenal in his bag and then moved between classrooms. “An eighth-grade student came with five weapons and seven magazines — which we believe belong to his former police officer father — in his bag, entered two classrooms with fifth-grade students, causing deaths and injuries indiscriminately,” Ünlüer said in comments reported by Reuters and other agencies.

Officials said the attacker entered two rooms including a mathematics class and fired on younger, fifth-grade pupils. Media reports described scenes of chaos, with some students seen in unverified footage fleeing through windows and down corridors as shots rang out.

Local outlets reported that authorities believe the firearms belonged to the student’s father, described as a retired or former police officer. The father has been detained for questioning, according to government notices cited by Turkish media, and some outlets said the student’s mother was also taken into custody. Officials have not released further details on how the boy accessed the weapons or whether they were properly stored.

Shortly after the attack, disturbing images and video from inside and around the school began circulating on social media and on some television channels. Turkish regulators moved quickly to limit their spread. The broadcasting watchdog, known by its Turkish acronym RTÜK, and local courts issued orders restricting “traumatic” images from the scene under existing media laws, and authorities warned that social media accounts sharing graphic footage could face legal action.

The scale of the shooting drew a swift, high-level response from Ankara. Interior Minister Çiftci, Education Minister Yusuf Tekin, Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu and Justice Minister Akın Gürlek all traveled to Kahramanmaraş. They visited hospitals treating the wounded and held briefings on the investigation.

Çiftci stressed that investigators do not believe the attack was linked to organized groups. “This was solely a personal attack carried out by one of our students. It is not a terror incident,” he said, according to Reuters. Officials have not elaborated on what might have driven the student to open fire on his classmates and teacher.

The Kahramanmaraş Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced a criminal investigation and assigned multiple prosecutors to the case. Authorities said they are examining the provenance and storage of the weapons, the student’s movements before the attack and any possible accomplices in providing access to firearms.

As the city mourned, the Education Ministry ordered all schools in Kahramanmaraş closed for two days. Officials said the suspension was meant to allow authorities to secure campuses and give families and students time to receive support.

Teacher unions and education organizations called for work stoppages and protests over school safety, linking their actions to a shocking run of violence: two school shootings in as many days. On Tuesday, a former student at a vocational high school in Siverek, in Şanlıurfa province in southeastern Turkey, opened fire and wounded 16 people before killing himself, according to national reporting.

The back-to-back attacks have intensified questions about how easily young people can obtain weapons in a country where gun laws on paper require licenses, background checks and registration. Firearms are relatively common among current and former members of the security forces and their families, and the apparent use of guns taken from a retired police officer’s home has sharpened scrutiny of storage practices and custodial responsibility.

Multiple international outlets have reported that the Kahramanmaraş shooting, with nine people killed not including the attacker, is the deadliest school shooting in modern Turkish history. Officials have promised further updates as they work to establish a motive, finalize the list of victims and determine whether any adults will face charges related to the firearms used in the attack.