Three killed and eight injured in school shootings in Brazil
Three people were killed and at least eight injured yesterday when a shooter opened fire at two schools in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, local police said.
The attacks happened around 10am local time (1300 GMT) in the small town of Aracruz, located some 80km (50 miles) north of state capital Vitoria.
The mayor of the town of Aracruz, in Espirito Santo state, said that a group of “criminals” had attacked the first school early yesterday, with a lone gunman opening fire on several teachers, killing two women and wounding nine other people.
The group then went to another school, where the same gunman killed an adolescent girl and wounded two other people, Mayor Luis Carlos Coutinho told radio network CBN.
Officials said that the unidentified teenager wearing military attire had opened fire at two schools, one private and one public.
Local police said they initially suspected the shooter was a student at one of the attacked schools, but Espirito Santo’s head of public security Marcio Celante told reporters that had not been confirmed.
The public security office said in a statement that police and rescue workers were taking care of those injured while continuing to search for the shooter.
One injured person had to be taken by helicopter to Serra, a larger city located some about 60km south of Aracruz.
Espirito Santo Governor Renato Casagrande expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and said that all local security forces had been engaged in the investigation.
President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called it an “absurd tragedy”.
“I extend my support to Governor Casagrande in investigating the case and comforting the communities surrounding the two affected schools,” said Lula, who will take office from President Jair Bolsonaro on January 1.
School shootings are relatively rare in Brazil, despite high levels of gun crime in the South American country.
Brazil’s deadliest school shooting left 12 children dead in 2011, when a man opened fire at his former elementary school in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Realengo.