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Teachers protest as Turkey buries school shooting victims / Photo: YASIN AKGUL - AFP
Teachers protest as Turkey buries school shooting victims
Thousands of teachers protested in Turkey on Thursday after two school shootings in two days left the country reeling, with the authorities cracking down on social media as crowds gathered for the funerals of nine victims of the second shooting.
As family members and mourners flocked around coffins draped in the Turkish flag in the southern province of Kahramanmaras, people also placed roses on the steps of the school that was attacked, many locals in shock at what had unfolded a day earlier when a 14-year-old arrived at the building with five guns and opened fire.
"I feel terrible. In front of my eyes, so many children were jumping, coming out injured, covered in blood," one woman who lives nearby said, telling AFP she had followed what happened from her balcony.
Authorities said nine people died in Wednesday's attack -- eight children aged 10 and 11 and their teacher -- a day after an ex-student opened fire at his former high school in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, leaving 16 injured.
The suspects in both cases were also killed, authorities have said, with the first attacker taking his own life when cornered by police.
Some 3,500 teachers gathered in the capital Ankara to call for the education minister to quit, some shouting "Blood has stained my profession" and others chanting: "Where were you while the children were dying."
-'I couldn't look'-
In the build-up to the funerals, police arrested dozens of web users for praising the shooters or spreading misinformation and blocked hundreds of social media accounts.
The authorities have said the second attacker, the son of a former police officer, planned his attack in advance.
Documents found on his computer from April 11 indicated he "intended to carry out a major operation in the near future".
They said he died at the scene, though it was not immediately clear how. His father was detained, police said, while local media reported that his mother, a teacher, had also been taken into custody.
Mass shootings are rare in Turkey and the incidents provoked shock across the country, with those living in Kahramanmaras still shaken on Thursday.
"Children jumped out of the window and came out injured," an eyewitness who lives near school told AFP.
"After that, I couldn't look anymore. I didn't send my children to school that day." said the woman, who did not want to be identified.
- 'Isolated act' -
Police said the 14-year-old attacker had referenced a mass shooter in the United States in a photo on his WhatsApp profile.
"Initial findings from the investigation revealed that the perpetrator used an image on his WhatsApp profile referencing Elliot Rodger, who carried out an attack in the United States in 2014," the police said in a statement.
Rodger killed six people on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, before taking his own life.
According to initial findings, no link to terrorism has been established in Wednesday's shooting, both the police and the prosecutors said.
Schools will remain closed in Kahramanmaras on Thursday and Friday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed sadness over Wednesday's "tragic attack" but promised the incident would be shed light "in all its aspects".
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(T.Brown--TAG)
