Ten gunned down in Brazil school
Two ex-students open fire at teens and staff before shooting themselves
Sao Paulo: Two former students shot dead ten people, most of them students and staff, at a high school near Sao Paulo before turning their weapons on themselves, authorities said.
Military police Colonel Marcelo Sales said two assailants burst into the school grounds on early Wednesday morning, armed with a .38 calibre revolver and a “medieval weapon that looked like a bow and arrows.”
After shooting at students in the yard, the killers headed to the language centre where several pupils were hiding and “committed suicide in a corridor,” Sales said.
“Eight people died at the scene, including the two assailants. Two injured people died after being taken to hospital,” a state military police spokesman said.
Among the victims were two members of staff – a counsellor and a warden – and the owner of a nearby car wash, who was shot by the attackers before they arrived at the school, said Sao Paulo’s Public Security Secretary Joao Pires de Campos.
All the victims died of gunshot wounds, the state military police spokesman said.
Nine more people were injured in the shooting at the Raul Brasil public school in Suzano, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.
The two assailants, who were wearing hoods, were identified as former pupils aged 17 and 25. The reasons for the attack are unknown. — AFP