IZMIR — At least 11 people were wounded after a teenager opened fire outside a high school in western Turkey on Tuesday before being detained by police, officials said.The incident happened around 8:00 am at the Inci Uzmez Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Turgutlu in Manisa province, near the western resort city of Izmir, the regional governor’s office said.”Eleven students were injured, two of them seriously…The minor who carried out the attack was quickly apprehended and taken into custody,” Justice Minister Akin Gürlek wrote on X.He said the suspect’s parents and grandfather had also been detained by investigators probing the attack, which saw police and rescuers rushing to the scene alongside panicked parents.Local media reported that two of the victims taken to hospital were in critical condition.DHA news agency broadcast CCTV footage of the alleged attacker, a young man wearing black jeans, a black jacket and a green top, walking along a street holding what appeared to be a long-barreled gun, with other clips apparently showing him fleeing still carrying the weapon.The motive behind the attack was not immediately clear.It has been reported in Turkish media that the gunman is a 15-year-old student, though that has not been officially confirmed.Footage from outside the school showed police wrestling a man in a white shirt to the ground before leading him away, as a woman screamed, with onlookers pressed against the school fence, filming with their mobile phones.Authorities have opened an investigation into the incident, Gürlek said.”How the weapon used in the attack ended up in the minor’s hands, the conditions under which it was kept and supervised…and allegations of bullying prior to the incident are all being investigated,” he wrote on X.In a statement, Turkey’s education ministry said the incident had “deeply saddened our nation, and our educational community in particular”.School shootings are rare in Turkey, although there were two attacks on consecutive days earlier this year in the south of the country that sparked widespread anger.In April, a 14-year-old opened fire at a school in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş, killing a teacher and nine students aged 10 and 11. The attacker died at the scene.A day earlier, another teenager opened fire at his former high school in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, wounding 16 people before taking his own life when confronted by police.Following the two attacks, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dismissed a deputy education minister and pledged his government would introduce tighter controls on gun ownership.He vowed school safety would be one of the government’s top priorities.”When we look at similar attacks around the world, especially in the United States, we see one of the perpetrators’ aims is to terrorise society,” he said.The attack came a day after Education Minister Yusuf Tekin and Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi signed a protocol setting out security measures for the 2026-2027 academic year, which began last Monday.Çiftçi said authorities had strengthened school security following the April shootings.”To ensure such pain is never experienced again, I would like to remind everyone that we must be extremely vigilant this year,” he said.He said 31,000 school grounds supervisors had been deployed for the first time.The interior ministry also carried out a fresh security assessment of schools and assigned police officers to first- and second-degree risk schools, where they remain on permanent duty, he said.Schools classified as lower risk are assigned police liaison officers who coordinate with school administrations.Police charged with monitoring security, public order, narcotics and juvenile issues would conduct regular patrols around schools, he said.Authorities would also inspect school buses and review abandoned buildings near schools under the new measures.
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