Attacker opens fire near high school in western Turkiye, wounding 11

Police arrest suspect after shooting near high school; injured people rushed to local hospitals for treatment.

An attacker has opened fire near a high school in western Turkiye, wounding at least 11 people, authorities said.

Two of the wounded were in critical condition, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on Tuesday morning, soon after the attack took place near a vocational and technical high school in the Turgutlu district in the western Manisa province.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 3‘Endless grief’: Turkiye mourns victims of second school shooting in a week
• list 2 of 3Philippines school shooting leaves at least three dead, including gunman
• list 3 of 3Canada’s BC sues OpenAI over ChatGPT role in Tumbler Ridge school shooting

The Haberturk news channel said the assailant was a student at the school.

The suspect was arrested. Their parents and grandfather, who owned the ⁠weapon used in the attack, have also been detained, Gurlek said.

The motive for the attack was not immediately clear, according to Gurlek, who said two chief prosecutors were appointed to investigate the shooting, including claims that the student was bullied at the school.

“When the security of our children is at stake, it is not possible for any negligence or irresponsibility to be overlooked,” Gurlek wrote on X.

“The circumstances under which the child obtained the gun used in the attack, the conditions of the weapon’s storage, the parents’ obligations regarding care and supervision, and allegations of bullying before the incident are being investigated thoroughly and from multiple angles,” he added.

Images and video posted online appeared to show the suspect walking along a street near the school holding a rifle before running back down the same street. Separate footage captured outside the building showed police pushing back families and onlookers gathered near the premises.

Security camera image of an armed man near a school in Turgutlu, west of the resort city of Izmir, Turkiye [Handout/DHA via AFP]

The attack comes months after two deadly school shootings shocked the country in April.

In one incident, 16 people, mostly students, were wounded when a former student opened fire at a high school in the Sanliurfa province before killing himself.

The following day, a 14-year-old killed nine people, including students and teachers, and wounded 13 others in an attack at his school in the Kahramanmaras province before being killed by the police.

Before those events, Turkiye had no history of such school attacks. The April shootings led to widespread outrage and prompted officials to introduce new security measures for the 2026-27 academic year, including tighter gun controls.