ANKARA: President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey will tighten gun-ownership rules and increase penalties for owners whose children find the firearms, after last week’s rare, deadly school shootings.
The second of the two separate attacks by students last week killed eight pupils and a teacher in a southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, shocking a nation in which such school-based violence is very rare.
Erdogan said the government will also take additional steps to monitor the internet as part of its response to the incidents.
Earlier, on April 16, A 14-year-old student shot at least nine people dead , including eight of his fellow pupils and wounded 13 others at a middle school in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, officials said, in the country’s second school shooting in two days.
Eight students and one teacher died in the attack in the province of Kahramanmaras, Turkey’s Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci told reporters, adding that six of the wounded were in critical condition.
Earlier, Kahramanmaras Governor Mukerrem Unluer had said the shooter had shot and killed himself in the commotion.
“An eighth-grade student came with 5 weapons and 7 magazines – which we believe belong to his former police officer father – in his bag, entered two classrooms with fifth grade students, causing deaths and injuries indiscriminately,” Unluer said.
Fifth-grade students are usually aged 10 and 11 in Turkey.
School shootings are very rare in Turkey. Asked by reporters if authorities would take any measures after the shootings this week, Ciftci said: “We will take necessary precautions”, without elaborating.
Gun laws are generally strict in Turkey, with only individuals aged over 21 and in possession of a license allowed to own weapons. However, guns are widespread in Turkey, with many security officers allowed to carry and own arms.
Unverified footage showed several students jumping from a second-storey window at the school as gunshots echoed around the grounds. Unverified CCTV footage from the school showed the attacker shooting two students walking down a hallway.
Turkish media footage from the school grounds on Wednesday showed ambulances arriving at the school where police and crowds had gathered by the gate.
On Tuesday, a former student opened fire at a school in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, wounding at least 16 people, including students and teachers, before killing himself.