Anadolu staff
15 April 2026•Update: 16 April 2026
A shooting at a middle school in Türkiye's Kahramanmaras province on Wednesday left nine people dead and 13 injured, six of them critically, said Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci.
Mukerrem Unluer, Kahramanmaras’s governor, said the attack was carried out by a male eighth-grade student at Ayser Calik Secondary School for reasons not yet known.
The student brought firearms in a backpack and opened fire indiscriminately after entering two classrooms, Unluer said, adding that six of the injured are undergoing surgery and are believed to be in critical condition.
The suspected attacker also died, he said, noting that it remains unclear whether he shot himself intentionally or was injured during the chaos.
The governor said the weapons may have belonged to the suspect’s father, a former police officer. The student reportedly arrived at the school with five firearms and seven magazines.
Kahramanmaras Chief Public Prosecutor Ramazan Murat Tiryaki said an investigation has been launched and is ongoing.
“Three deputy chief public prosecutors and four public prosecutors have been assigned to the investigation. Our chief public prosecutor and the assigned prosecutors are continuing their work at the scene,” Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on the Turkish social media platform NSosyal.
According to an official statement, Turkish Education Minister Yusuf Tekin and accompanying officials travelled to the region shortly after being informed of the incident.
The ministry also said that four chief inspectors have been dispatched to Kahramanmaras to comprehensively examine the incident.
Turkish Communications Director Burhanettin Duran said on the US social media company X’s platform that all aspects of the incident are being examined carefully by the relevant institutions and that all necessary steps are being taken in the process.
Given that the incident directly affects minors and their families, Duran also called for the utmost care in the language and tone used in both traditional and digital media.
Gurlek said that media coverage restrictions have been imposed to ensure the integrity of the investigation, and it is important that media outlets strictly observe the confidentiality of the process, adding that authorities will provide necessary updates on all stages of the investigation.
Interior Minister Ciftci announced that education in Kahramanmaras has been suspended for two days.
- Legal action against social media posts
The Justice Ministry said it had launched urgent legal proceedings against individuals who used social media and other digital platforms to glorify the violence, justify the attack or the perpetrator, spread fear and panic, or disseminate misleading information to the public.
In a statement, the ministry said digital activity following the attack was being closely monitored by authorized units across all 81 provinces, with coordination established among 171 heavy criminal courts. It said operations were being actively conducted in cooperation with relevant law enforcement units, with detentions and searches carried out against individuals deemed to have shared criminal content on social media platforms.
