Brazil axe attack: Four children dead and four injured in attack on daycare centre

An axe attack at a school in Brazil's southern state of Santa Catarina left at least four children dead, and five others wounded. The attack was carried out by a 25-year-old man who was armed with a small axe, according to the Guardian newspaper. The perpetrator climbed and jumped over a wall to enter the school named Cantinho Bom Pastor. As he invaded the daycare centre, he killed four kids and injured others, the Brazilian authorities who responded to the scene, said. The assailant was found to have no prior links with the school. He voluntarily turned himself in at a police station. All the dead children were aged between five and seven. 

30-day mourning period announced

The school where the incident unfolded, offers nursery services to the children, as well as preschool education and after-school activities for the children. The police officers are still probing the incident and are looking for the motive behind the gruesome attack, a Brazilian police detective said in a televised remark to a Blumenau-based broadcaster near the Atlantic coast. In the visuals broadcasted from the scene, parents of the kids demised were seen weeping and others were frantically searching for their children. 

Blumenau’s mayor, Mário Hildebrandt, announced a 30-day mourning period. Over fears of subsequent attacks, he ordered the city to suspend classes for the kids until further notice. The wounded children, he said, have been taken to the hospital and are under medical supervision. One child is serious, he noted. There have been increasing reports of school attacks emerging from Brazil in the last few months. 

Last week, in Sao Paulo a student fatally stabbed a teacher and injured several others in a knife attack. At least three other teachers and two students were also wounded in the incident. A 13-year-old student was held responsible for the knife attack, authorities in Brazil later announced, adding that the attack took place at about 7:20 am local time (10:20 GMT) at the Thomazia Montoro public school. Taking to his official Twitter handle, the governor of Sao Paulo state, Tarcisio Gomes de Freitas, expressed remorse and sadness. He informed, that the suspect had been apprehended. No motive was confirmed.  “I have no words to express my sadness,” de Freitas wrote.