Sixteen individuals sustained injuries as a result of an incident where a 17-year-old male opened fire at a school in Turkey. The attack occurred at Ahmet Koyuncu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in the Siverek district of Sanliurfa. Following the incident, the teenager took his own life, according to Sanliurfa Governor Hasan Sildak. Sildak confirmed that the attacker, a former student born in 2007, committed suicide, and the school was evacuated for investigation purposes.
Emergency response teams, including medical, police, and special operations units, swiftly arrived at the scene after the attack took place around 9:30 am local time. An eyewitness reported to NTV, a Turkish television channel, that the assailant entered the school premises armed with a shotgun and began shooting randomly, later holding students hostage inside the school.
Omer Furkan Sayar, one of the injured students, recounted to TRT, Turkey’s state broadcaster, that he and another student leaped out of a window to escape the attacker. Sayar mentioned that they initially dropped to the ground before deciding to jump out of the window as the assailant started shooting without uttering a word.
Turkey’s Interior Ministry released a statement identifying the attacker and reporting injuries to 10 students, four teachers, a police officer, and a canteen worker, who were all transported to Siverek State Hospital for treatment. The ministry disclosed that the teenager used a pump-action shotgun during the assault and later took his own life with the same weapon. The motive behind the attack remains unclear, prompting an ongoing investigation.
Siverek, situated in southeastern Turkey, is approximately 70 miles away from the Syrian border.