Gunman Wounds 16 at Turkish High School After Posting Threats on Instagram
A former student opened fire with a shotgun at a vocational high school in southeastern Turkey, wounding 16 including 10 students and four teachers. He had posted threats on the school's Instagram page days before the attack.
A 19-year-old former student opened fire with a pump-action shotgun at a high school in southeastern Turkey on Monday morning, wounding 16 people before killing himself -- days after posting threats on the school's Instagram page warning he would "wipe everyone out."
The attack at Ahmet Koyuncu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in the Siverek district of Sanliurfa province wounded 10 students, four teachers, one police officer, and one cafeteria worker, Turkey's Interior Ministry confirmed in a press statement. Four of the wounded -- two teachers and two students -- were transferred to hospitals in the provincial capital with more severe injuries.
The gunman, identified by Turkish authorities only by his initials O.K., entered through the school's outer gate and opened fire indiscriminately in the yard before moving inside the building, according to Sanliurfa Governor Hasan Sildak. Special operations units deployed after the assailant refused to surrender. He killed himself with the same weapon before police could apprehend him.
The school, which enrolls approximately 1,000 students, had been "previously classified as safe by police," Governor Sildak said. All remaining staff and students were evacuated after the attack.
Threats Posted Days Before
The attacker had posted threatening messages on the school's Instagram page one to two days before the shooting, warning he would "carry out an attack within one to two days" and "wipe everyone out," according to Turkish media reports confirmed by Hurriyet Daily News. It was not immediately clear whether the threats had been reported to authorities or acted upon.
The gunman had attended the school through ninth grade before switching to an open education program. He had no prior criminal record. An argument with a friend was cited as a possible trigger, though the full motive remained under investigation.
Eyewitness Account
Gokhan Basaranoglu, who witnessed the attack, described the scene: "He was around 17-18 years old. He fired at anyone directly in front of him."
Background
The shooting follows a separate incident in March in which a student killed a teacher in Istanbul, intensifying debate in Turkey over school safety. Mass shootings remain relatively rare in Turkey, which has strict gun laws, but illegal firearms -- particularly shotguns -- are more widely available in rural southeastern provinces like Sanliurfa.