06/05/2026
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06/05/2026
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SAO PAULO, May 6: A teenage student shot dead two staff members and injured two other people, including an 11-year-old girl, at a school in Brazil on Tuesday, in the latest attack on an educational institution in the country.
Authorities said a 13-year-old boy was arrested after the shooting at the São José Institute, a junior high school in Rio Branco, the capital of the northwestern state of Acre.
The injured girl was shot in the leg.
Lieutenant Colonel Felipe Russo of Acre’s military police told reporters that the teenager entered the school and fired several shots in a hallway leading to the principal’s office. He later surrendered to police.
The boy’s stepfather, who owns the .380-calibre pistol used in the attack, was also arrested, authorities said.
Russo added that police had identified other students who may have helped the attacker.
Eduardo Rodrigues Cavalcante, a 19-year-old receptionist at a hotel next to the school, described scenes of panic as students tried to escape by climbing over a wall separating the school from the hotel.
“The wall is six metres high, and only one person managed to jump over and take refuge here in the hotel. The others were left on the school roof trying to escape,” Cavalcante said. He added that he heard “gunshots and a lot of screaming.”
Images released by local media showed a woman being carried away on a stretcher and emotional scenes outside the school, where people were seen crying and embracing.
“In the face of this tragedy, the state expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the school community of the São José Institute, and all education professionals affected by this event,” the Acre state government said in a statement.
Officials said classes had been suspended for three days at all schools in the state. Psychological support teams have also been deployed to assist students and teachers.
Brazil has seen a rise in attacks on schools and educational institutions in recent years.
In September 2025, two teenagers were shot dead and three others were wounded at a school in the northeastern state of Ceará. In October 2023, a shooting at a school in São Paulo killed a 17-year-old student and injured three others.
Shortly before that, a teenager was killed and three others were wounded in a knife attack outside a school in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
In April 2023, a 25-year-old man entered a daycare centre in the southern state of Santa Catarina and killed four children, aged between three and seven, with an axe.
