Status: 11/25/2022 10:51 p.m
Attackers shot dead at least three people and injured 11 in two different schools in Brazil. Brazilian President Lula was concerned – and suggested an investigation.
At least three people were killed and eleven others injured in gun attacks on two schools in Brazil. According to the authorities, the crimes occurred in the southeastern state of Espírito Santo.
Mayor Luis Carlos Coutinho told CBN radio that two attackers first entered a school in the city of Aracruz. There, one of them is said to have shot at a group of teachers, killing two women and injuring nine others. The attackers then broke into another school, where, according to Coutinho, they shot a teenager and injured two other people.
President Lula speaks of “absurd tragedy”
President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva described the attack on Twitter as an “absurd tragedy”. He offered his condolences to the families of the victims and said he would assist the governor with an investigation.
Lula will take office on December 1st. During the election campaign, he denounced the extreme increase in the number of gun licenses during the tenure of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro.
Under Bolsonaro, the number of gun collectors, sport shooters and hunters rose from 117,000 in 2019 to over 673,000. With his decrees, the ex-military had massively facilitated access to firearms.
Rare gun attacks in schools in Brazil
Despite widespread violence in Brazil, gun attacks in schools in the South American country are relatively rare. In April 2011, in the bloodiest gun attack on a school to date, a 24-year-old man opened fire at his former school in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, killing twelve school children before committing suicide. In March 2019, two former high school students in the São Paulo region shot dead eight people and injured 11 others before turning the gun on themselves.