Students, staff die in Brazil school attack

TWO MEN DIE AFTER TURNING GUN ON THEMSELVES

TWO armed men wearing face masks entered a Brazilian school yesterday and shot and killed at least six children who were on their breaks, as well as two school officials, before fatally turning their guns on themselves, police said.

Ten people, including the gunmen, were killed in total, Sao Paulo police said.

The unidentified gunmen, who appeared to be between 20 and 25 years of age, shot and killed a worker at a nearby car wash before their attack at the Raul Brasil school, police said.

More than 1,000 children aged between 11 and 15 attend classes there.

Another 17 people – mostly schoolchildren – were shot and injured, and several of them were in serious condition, said police, who were not yet aware of a motive for the violence last night.

Marcelo Salles, commander of police forces in Sao Paulo state, spoke just outside the school and said that in his over three decades of service, he had “never seen anything like this, it was an unspeakably brutal crime.”

Police arrived eight minutes after the shooting started and did not confront the gunmen, who had already killed themselves, he said.

School shootings are rare in Brazil, even though the country is one of the world’s most violent, with more annual homicides than any other.