A knife attack at a middle school on the western edge of Istanbul has left a 10-year-old girl dead and seven other children wounded, adding to a year of school violence that has unsettled Turkey.
What officials have said
The attack happened around 8:40 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at Kayaşehir Şeyh Şamil İmam Hatip Middle School in the Başakşehir district. Istanbul Governor Davut Gül said the attacker was a female student from another nearby school who entered wearing the uniform and stabbed students "indiscriminately," according to the German news agency dpa, as carried by A News. Education Minister Yusuf Tekin told reporters the suspect is a 15-year-old 10th grader, Euronews reported.
Turkish outlets Sabah and Yeni Şafak reported that she had previously attended the middle school, wore its uniform and brought two knives from home. Sabah reported that a female security guard subdued her before police took her into custody. Officials first put the number of wounded at five before the Education Ministry raised it to eight. Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu said one child was in critical condition and two in moderate-to-serious condition, according to Euronews.
Eslem Sare Bulut, 10, died in the hospital despite emergency surgery, Turkish media reported. The Interior Ministry confirmed the death and said the other seven wounded pupils were being treated. Sabah reported that the injured were girls between 10 and 13 years old, and that Bulut was to be buried in her family's home province of Bartın.
The response
The Education Ministry suspended classes at the school on Oct. 6 and 7, began offering psychological support to students, families and teachers, and assigned inspectors to both a judicial and an administrative investigation, Milli Gazete reported. A delegation led by a deputy minister was sent to Istanbul. Prosecutors in Küçükçekmece opened a case, and a local court imposed a ban restricting publication about the investigation, according to Sabah. No motive has been officially confirmed.
School safety has been a growing concern in Turkey this year. In April, a rare school shooting in the eastern province of Kahramanmaraş left 11 people dead, including a teacher and the student attacker, A News noted.