Deadly shooting at Brazil school comes after gun laws lifted

Two young men wearing hoods and carrying guns, knives and crossbows opened fire at a school in southern Brazil yesterday, killing eight people before taking their own lives.

The dead at the Sao Paulo school included two teachers and six students.

Several other people had been hospitalised after sustaining injuries, according to governor Joao Doria.

He spoke a few blocks from the public school in Suzano – a suburb in Brazil’s largest city.

The attackers appeared to be in their early to mid-20s.

Authorities said they did not believe the shooters were former students, according to the governor.

Mr Doria said the school had been evacuated and police were inspecting what appeared to be possible explosives left by the shooters.

“The school is on lockdown,” he said.

Students gathered outside the school recounted harrowing attacks and seeing several bodies lying in pools of blood.

“We were at recess and eating like normal and we heard three pops, then we tried to run to jump over the walls,” Rosni Marcelo Grotliwed, a 15-year-old student, said.

She said the attackers had guns and knives and when she ran to the principal’s office, she saw many dead people.

“Myfriendwasstabbedinthe shoulder and my other friend was shot,” she said. “I escaped with one friend and went home and then came back to look for another friend.”

Horacio Pereira Nunes, a retired man whose house is next to the school, said he started hearing shots around 10am (1pm GMT).

“Then a lot of kids started running out, all screaming,” he said. “It didn’t take long until police arrived.”

The public school, Raul Brasil Professor, has more than 1,600 students from elementary to high school grades, teachers gathered outside said.

Latin America’s most populous nation has the largest number of annual homicides in the world, but school shootings are rare.

Twelve students were killed by a gunman in 2012 who roamed the halls of a school in Rio de Janeiro, shooting at them.

President Jair Bolsonaro ran on a platform that included promises to crack down on criminals, in part by expanding public access to guns. Soon after being inaugurated on 1 January, Mr Bolsonaro issued a decree making it easier for people wanting a gun to buy and possess one.

Standing outside the school, Claudio Cabral said he had been trying to reach his nephew, 17-year-old Douglas Mourinho, so far without luck.

“He is a smart kid,” he said. “We heard many students jumped the wall. Maybe that’s what happened.”