'Endless pain': Turkiye mourns victims of second school shooting in a week | News about gun violence

The death toll rises to 10 following the shooting by a 14-year-old student at the Ayser Calik school in Kahramanmaras.

Mourners have gathered in Kahramanmaras province in southern Turkiye for funerals for victims killed in the second of two school shootings that shook the nation this week.

Funerals were held Thursday for eight students and math teacher Ayla Kara, 55, who died in Wednesday's shooting, The Associated Press news agency reported.

A tenth victim died while being treated at the hospital on Thursday, authorities said. Six of those injured in the attack were in critical condition, authorities said.

Isa Aras Mersinli, 14, opened fire on two classrooms at the Ayser Calik school in the city of Kahramanmaras on Wednesday. The attacker was later found dead.

Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said the attacker is believed to have used weapons that belonged to his father, a former police officer.

At the funeral for four of the victims held on Thursday near the main mosque in the city of Kahramanmaras, a father sat motionless next to the coffin of his daughter, 10-year-old Zeynep, the AFP news agency reported.

“Our pain is endless. These children were like ours. They were all innocent,” said Vezir Yucel, father of a student named Yusuf, who lost his close friend, 10-year-old Bayram, in the shooting.

Nilgun Ruci, a 55-year-old housewife, told AFP she ran to the Ayser Calik school after hearing gunshots. When he arrived, he saw a neighbor's daughter lying seriously injured.

“He had been shot in the leg and shoulder,” Ruci said. “At first I thought he had fainted. Today I found out he had died.”

Second attack in two days

The attack was the country's second school shooting in two days, following Tuesday's attack at a high school in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa by a former student that injured 16 people.

As of Thursday, 20 people had been detained in connection with Tuesday's shooting in Sanliurfa.

The Ministries of the Interior and Education held a joint meeting on school safety in the capital Ankara on Thursday, attended by both ministers and all 81 Turkiye provincial governors, as well as police chiefs and provincial education directors.

Until this week, school shootings were rare in Turkiye. But dozens of students were arrested Thursday for alleged social media posts suggesting they might carry out similar attacks.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced that 67 social media users were arrested for posts targeting 54 different schools.