A gunman who opened fire at a high school in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, wounding 16 people before killing himself, had been detained and released just one day earlier after sending explicit threats to the school.
The attack is drawing intense scrutiny over a series of apparent failures by authorities. According to the TR724 news website, Ömer Ket, a former student of the high school, had sent threatening messages through social media in the days before the shooting, warning staff and students: “Get ready, there will be an attack at this school in a few days” and “See you tomorrow — I will destroy all of you.” The school principal filed a formal complaint over the messages.
Despite the threats and the formal complaint, Ket was released a day before the attack after just one day in custody, a decision that has emerged as the most critical apparent failure in the investigation.
Reports indicate Ket had harbored a grievance against the school principal, whom he blamed for his academic failures. He had been held back due to absenteeism, later enrolling in an open-enrollment school, where he also did not succeed.
The attack occurred Tuesday morning at the Ahmet Koyuncu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Siverek, a district of southeastern Şanlıurfa province. The shooter, identified by authorities as Ömer Ket, born in 2007, was a former student of the school. He opened fire with a shotgun, wounding 10 students, four teachers, a police officer and a canteen worker before taking his own life at the scene.
The Interior Ministry and Şanlıurfa provincial authorities confirmed the casualty figures. Four local officials — two district police chiefs and two district education directors — were suspended pending an investigation.
The Şanlıurfa Governor’s Office announced that classes at the school would be suspended for four days. The suspensions of the four officials were described as necessary to ensure an unimpeded investigation.
One day after the Siverek shooting, a second attack took place at the Ayser Çalık Secondary School in the Onikişubat district of Kahramanmaraş province. Minister of interior Mustafa Çiftçi confirmed nine deaths, with 13 wounded — six in intensive care, three in critical condition. The minister described the attacker as an eighth-grade student aged 14.
School shootings had been rare in Turkey, which has strict gun laws requiring licensing, registration, mental health screening and criminal background checks, with harsh penalties for illegal possession. Following the Siverek attack, teachers unions announced a nationwide one-day work stoppage on April 15 to protest the lack of security for educators and students.
