New school attack leaves one student dead in Brazil

New school attack leaves one student dead in Brazil

At least one student was killed and three other people were injured during a shooting spree at a public school in São Paulo, Brazilian authorities said. “During the shooting attack, three students were hit. One student died and three others are being treated at the Sapopemba General Hospital, one of whom was wounded while trying to flee during the attack,” the São Paulo State Governor’s office explained in a statement.

Military Police sources said a young man wearing a school uniform, burst into the place for reasons still unknown and fired several shots. The assailant, who was wounded in the process, has been arrested and the gun he used has been seized, it was also reported.

“We are appalled at yet another terrible attack in our schools. The priority, at this time, is to support the students, teacher and family members. All my solidarity to those affected,” São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas wrote on X.

Eight attacks have been recorded at Brazilian schools so far this year, one third of the total number of cases in the country since 2002, according to the Brazilian Public Security Forum. On Oct. 10, a teenager was killed and three others were injured in a knife attack as they were leaving class at a school in the state of Minas Gerais. In June, a 16-year-old student was killed and a classmate of the same age was seriously injured in a gun attack by a former student at a school in the metropolitan region of Londrina, a city in the interior of the southern state of Paraná. In April, in the most lethal attack of the year, a 25-year-old man invaded a kindergarten in the state of Santa Catarina (south) and killed four children between the ages of 3 and 7 using an axe.

The worst case on record occurred in 2011 when 12 children were killed after a man opened fire at their former nursery school in Realengo, a suburb in Rio de Janeiro, before taking his own life.

Justice Minister Flávio Dino said Monday that his office’s cybercrime laboratory had been summoned to “assist the São Paulo police.”