Brazil experienced a new school tragedy this Wednesday, the second in ten days, with the murder of four children at the hands of a 25-year-old man with a knife in a nursery in the city of Blumenau, in the south of the country.
The assailant, who turned himself in to the authorities after the attack, also injured at least three other minors, according to the Police and the Fire Department. The fatalities are three boys and a girl up to seven years old, according to local media.
The event occurred around 09:00 local time (12:00 GMT) at the Cantinho Bom Pastor nursery and nursery school, a private center, in which there were 40 children inside.
The attacker, whose identity is unknown, jumped over the school wall and began to attack the children randomly with a small axe, according to the official version.
Apparently, when he saw the reaction of the teachers, He fled, jumping over the wall through which he had entered and went to a Military Police headquarters to turn himself in. Since then, he has remained silent.
Simone Aparecida, one of the nursery teachers, told local television that she was alerted by a colleague and that she locked a group of babies under her care in the bathroom to avoid being seen by the assailant, who, according to her, had He went to the playground, where some minors were having a round of conversation.
The Brazilian authorities have opened an investigation to clarify the motives for the attack.
The Mayor’s Office blumenau, a quiet municipality of about 400,000 inhabitants in the state of Santa Catarina, Known for being a place where German immigrants settled, suspended public network classes this Wednesday and Thursday, and recommended the same to private centers.
The governor of Santa Catarina, Jorginho Mello, declared official mourning for three days in the region.
Unanimous condemnation of authorities and politicians
Reactions to this new attack on a school came from all political sectors of the country.
The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was one of the first to speak out about this new tragedy, which he described as “monstrosity.”
“There is no greater pain than that of a family that loses its children or grandchildren, even more so in an act of violence against innocent and defenseless children,” the president wrote on his social networks, through which he also conveyed his “feelings and prayers.” to the victims.
According to Lula, “for any human being who has a Christian sentiment, a tragedy like this is unacceptable” and an “absurd act of hatred and cowardice.”
The president of the ruling Workers’ Party (PT), Deputy Gleisi Hoffmann urged the Lula government to “urgently” create a plan to “contain hatred and violence in schools.”
From the ranks of the opposition there were also messages of condemnation and regret for the episode.
“How sad this tragedy in a nursery in Blumenau. May God comfort the hearts of the families of the victims,” said Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
Also a senator, Ciro Nogueira, a close ally of Bolsonaro, said he felt “a mixture of immense sadness and indignation.”
“I cannot even imagine the pain of these families. My wish is that God can somehow comfort their hearts, ”he added on his social networks.
history repeats itself
In recent months, there have been several attacks on schools in Brazil, with white or firearms.
Blumenau’s attack occurs ten days after another that took place in a school in Sao Paulo, where a 13-year-old teenager stabbed a teacher to death and injured four other people – three teachers and a student.
In addition, On November 25, a 16-year-old teenager shot four people dead in two successive attacks to two nearby schools in Aracruz, in the state of Espíritu Santo (southeast).
Two months earlier, a man armed with a revolver and two knives invaded a civic-military school and killed a disabled student in the northeastern state of Bahia.
Already on March 13, 2019, two former students entered a school in the city of Suzano, some 60 kilometers from São Paulo, killing five students and two workers, and leaving a dozen injured, before both took off their life.