TURGUTLU: A teenager opened fire outside a high school in western Turkey on Tuesday, Sept, 22, injuring 11 students, including two who were seriously wounded, before police detained him, authorities said.
The shooting occurred in Turgutlu, a town in Manisa province near the western coastal city of Izmir. Police and emergency crews rushed to the school as frightened parents gathered outside the building.
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said the suspect, who is a minor, was taken into custody shortly after the shooting. Investigators also detained the suspect's parents and grandfather as authorities examined how the weapon reached the teenager.
"Eleven students were injured, two of them seriously," Gurlek said in a post on X.
Witnesses described scenes of panic immediately after the gunfire. One local resident told that he saw the suspect walking toward a nearby side street while shouting and swearing. Another witness said the teenager fired at people while carrying what appeared to be a rifle. The witness said bystanders were unable to intervene because of the weapon.
Authorities launched a criminal investigation into the shooting. Officials are examining how the firearm was stored, how the teenager obtained it and whether allegations of bullying played a role, Gurlek said.
The Education Ministry suspended classes at the school for the remainder of the day. School shootings are uncommon in Turkey, but Tuesday's attack followed two separate shootings involving teenagers in April that raised concerns about security at schools.
In one April attack, a 14-year-old opened fire at a school in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş, killing a teacher and nine students ages 10 and 11. The attacker died at the scene. A day earlier, another teenager attacked his former high school in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, injuring 16 people before taking his own life when confronted by police.
Following those incidents, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government would strengthen gun controls and make school security a priority. The latest shooting also came one day after Education Minister Yusuf Tekin and Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci announced new security measures for the academic year, which began last week.
Ciftci said authorities had deployed 31,000 school security personnel and assigned police officers to schools considered to face the highest security risks. Lower-risk schools were assigned police liaison officers to coordinate with administrators.
