ANKARA, April 14 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 people, mostly students, were injured in a school shooting in southeast Türkiye on Tuesday as a former student entered with a shotgun and opened fire randomly before committing suicide, local media reported.
The incident occurred in the morning at the Ahmet Koyuncu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in the Siverek district in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa.
Sanliurfa Governor Hasan Sildak said that the gunman, born in 2007, had previously studied at the school before transferring to an open high school program. He had no criminal record and fired randomly in the corridor with a pump-action shotgun. His body had been removed from the school and sent to the morgue at the Sanliurfa Forensic Medicine Institute for an autopsy.
Among the injured were 10 students, four teachers, a cafeteria worker, and a police officer, Sildak said. Most of them were treated at a local hospital, while five seriously injured victims were transferred to a hospital in the provincial capital, he added.
The governor described the attack as an "isolated incident" and noted that the school, which has 743 students, was not considered high-risk and had no permanent police presence.
"We are investigating the incident extensively and will inform the public as quickly as possible," he said.
Citing Sanliurfa Provincial Director of National Education Asim Sultanoglu, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported that education at the school was suspended for four days. "Rehabilitation work will be carried out for the students and teachers," Sultanoglu said. ■