Horror in Brazil: a man shot dead four girls in a nursery

A man who entered a nursery with an axe it killed four children and injured at least four others on Wednesday in southern Brazil, authorities said. The victims are said to be between five and seven years old, according to local media.

The governor of the state of Santa Catarina, Jorginho Mello, confirmed the murders in the city of Blumenau on his Twitter account, writing that the killer has been arrested. Firefighters confirmed that the man attacked with an ax and that three children were taken to hospital.

“An individual entered the school with a knife and killed four children. There were also four injuries,” this source explained.

The perpetrator, a 25-year-old man, turned himself in at a military police headquarters, where he was detained, the force said in a statement.

The police confirmed the four deaths and other boys transferred to hospitals in the city to be treated. according to the newspaper Folha de São Paulothe victims were three boys and a girl, all of between five and seven years.

The same source indicates that the assailant arrived on a motorcycle, climbed over a wall and picked his victims at random. When he saw the teachers rushing to protect the boys, the killer jumped over the wall again and ran away. He later gave himself up to the police.

The authorities reported that the attacker remained silent when he turned himself in. The motive for such a crime is still unknown, they said.

In the place, according to local media, the climate was desperate. The relatives of the boys attending the institute were arriving when they learned of the attack, without knowing what had happened to the children.

Initially, only security officers entered the site to rescue the victims and the survivors were gradually released. The attack took place around 9 in the morning local time and about an hour later all the children had already been taken out of the kindergarten and were with their families.

The four injured, according to official information, They are two 5 year old girls, a 5 year old boy and a 3 year old boy.. A fifth child suffered minor injuries and was taken by his mother to hospital but was quickly discharged.

At the moment the state of health of the other injured is not known, even if the local press indicates that there is at least one child with a serious clinical picture.

In addition to functioning as a day center and kindergarten, the institution where the attack took place offers other educational activities for public school students who attend on a non-recurring basis.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned “the monstrosity” that occurred: “There is no greater pain than that of a family who loses their children or grandchildreneven more in an act of violence against innocent and defenseless children,” he wrote in a message on Twitter.

A horror that is repeated in Brazil

Attacks on schools have increased in recent years in Brazil.

The most recent was last March 27: a 13-year-old teenager killed a teacher with a knife in a school in São Paulo.

last Novembera 16-year-old teenager killed four people and injured more than a dozen in two attacks against schools in the city of Aracruz, in the state of Espirito Santo (southeast).

In 2019, two former students shot eight people to death in a high school in Suzano, on the outskirts of São Paulo, and then committed suicide.

The deadliest attack ever recorded in Brazil took place in 2011: 12 children were killed when a man opened fire in their former kindergarten in Realengo, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, before taking his own life.