Crowds gathered for the funerals of eight children and a teacher in southern Turkiye on Thursday, who were killed when a 14-year-old opened fire at a school in a crime that has plunged the country in to shock and the community into grief.
As family members and mourners flocked around coffins draped in the Turkish flag in the province of Kahramanmaras, people also placed roses on the steps of the school that was attacked, locals still reeling at what unfolded a day earlier when the teenaged attacker arrived at the building with five guns and opened fire.
“We have a tremendous pain,” said Vezir Yucel, whose son played football in the same academy as 10-year-old Bayram Nabi Sisik, one of the students killed at school on Wednesday.
“He was such a good kid, respectful and very hardworking,” he told AFP outside the mosque after the funerals. His 11-year-old son Yusuf – standing next to him, was shaking and crying.
Authorities said nine people died in Wednesday’s attack — eight children aged 10 and 11 and their teacher — a day after an ex-student opened fire at his former high school in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, leaving 16 injured.
The suspects in both cases were also killed, authorities have said, with the first attacker taking his own life when cornered by police.
“I feel terrible. In front of my eyes, so many children were jumping, coming out injured, covered in blood,” said one woman, who lives near the school attack, on Wednesday, telling AFP she had followed what happened from her balcony.
Another local, who gave his name as Ahmet, 16, said his sister knew the attacker as she went to the same school with him, though she hadn’t been in class on Wednesday.
“Allah protected her. But she’s shocked,” he said. “She knows the shooter.”
Some 3,500 teachers gathered in the capital Ankara to call for the education minister to quit, some shouting: “Blood has stained my profession”; and others chanting: “Where were you while the children were dying.”
‘Interest in firearms’
In the build-up to the funerals, police arrested dozens of web users for praising the shooters or spreading misinformation and blocked hundreds of social media accounts.
The authorities have said the second attacker, the son of a former police officer, planned his attack in advance.
Documents found on his computer from April 11 indicated he “intended to carry out a major operation in the near future”.
They said he died at the scene, though it was not immediately clear how.
His father was detained, police said, while local media reported that his mother, a teacher, had also been taken into custody.
The attacker’s father Ugur Mersinli said his son had an interest in firearms, in a testimony to authorities, the private NTV television reported.
“From time to time, he said his friends were shooting. I tried to teach him in order to discourage this interest. My intention was not to lead him to do such a thing,” his father reportedly said, adding they had last practised shooting two days before the attack.
Mass shootings are rare in Turkiye and the incidents provoked shock across the country, with those living in Kahramanmaras still shaken on Thursday.
“Children jumped out of the window and came out injured,” an eyewitness who lives near the school told AFP.
“After that, I couldn’t look anymore. I didn’t send my children to school that day,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified.
Schools will remain closed in Kahramanmaras on Thursday and Friday.
‘Isolated act’
Police said the 14-year-old attacker had referenced a mass shooter in the United States in a photo on his WhatsApp profile.
“Initial findings from the investigation revealed that the perpetrator used an image on his WhatsApp profile referencing Elliot Rodger, who carried out an attack in the United States in 2014,” the police said in a statement.
Rodger killed six people on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, before taking his own life.
According to initial findings, no link to terrorism has been established in Wednesday’s shooting, both the police and the prosecutors said.
“This appears to be an isolated act,” the police added.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed sadness over Wednesday’s “tragic attack” but promised the incident would be shed light “in all its aspects”.
