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Axe attack at Brazilian pre-school leaves four children dead and four injured Axe attack at Brazilian pre-school leaves four children dead and five injured
(about 1 hour later)
President Lula deplores ‘act of hate and cowardice’ as police arrest 25-year-old man after killings in southern state of Santa CatarinaPresident Lula deplores ‘act of hate and cowardice’ as police arrest 25-year-old man after killings in southern state of Santa Catarina
At least four children have been killed and four other injured when a 25-year-old man armed with a small axe attacked a pre-school in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Four children have been killed and at least five others injured after a 25-year-old man armed with a small axe attacked a pre-school in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.
Police said the man responsible for the attack in the city of Blumenau early on Wednesday had been arrested. The local security chief, Marcio Alberto Filippi, told reporters the attacker gained access to the private school by scaling its walls. A man with a hatchet jumped over a wall and invaded a daycare center on Wednesday in Brazil, killing four children and wounding at least five others, authorities said.
Hospital Santo Antônio in the city of Blumenau said the other four injured children in the attack aged between three and five years old were under its medical care. The assailant turned himself in at a police station and did not appear to have any connection with the center, which offers nursery services, pre-school education and after-school activities. The dead were between the ages of five and seven, authorities said.
According to local media, a 25-year-old man jumped over the nursery wall and attacked the children with an axe. Investigators were searching for a motive, a police detective told television reporters in Blumenau, a city in southern Brazil, near the Atlantic coast.
The attack, dubbed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a “monstrosity”, happened nearly a week after a 13-year-old student stabbed a teacher to death and wounded five others in a São Paulo school. Images broadcast on networks showed weeping parents outside the private daycare center called Cantinho Bom Pastor.
“A tragedy like this is unacceptable, an absurd act of hate and cowardice ... an act of violence against innocent and defenseless children,” Lula said in a Twitter post. Amid rumours on social media of other potential attacks, Blumenau’s mayor, Mário Hildebrandt, said the city suspended classes and will declare a 30-day mourning period.
More details soon … The mayor said five wounded children, aged between three and five, were taken to hospitals. One was in serious condition.
School attacks in Brazil have happened with greater frequency in recent years. Last week, a student in São Paulo fatally stabbed a teacher and wounded several others.
Brazil has seen at least one past attack on a daycare center. That attack also occurred in Santa Catarina state, in 2021, when an assailant used a dagger to kill three children under two years old and two adults.
From 2000 to 2022, 16 attacks or violent episodes happened in schools, four of them in the second half of last year, according to a report from researchers led by Daniel Cara, an education professor at the University of São Paulo. The researchers prepared the report for the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“There is no greater pain than that of a family who loses its children or grandchildren, even more so in an act of violence against innocent and defenseless kids,” Lula wrote on Wednesday on Twitter. “My thoughts and prayers are with the families of victims and the community of Blumenau in the face of the monstrosity of what occurred.”
Blumenau, a city of 366,000 people, is famous for its annual Oktoberfest festival.