A young man armed with a machete broke into the nursery school Pró-Infância Aquarela, located at Quintino Bocaiúva street, in the Industrial district, in Saudades , in the west of Santa Catarina , on Tuesday morning (local time) and killed several people.
The information was confirmed by the Military Fire Brigade and the Municipal Health Secretariat. “It is a tragedy,” said the commander of the 2nd BPM in Chapecó, Major Ademir Barcarollo.
According to firefighters, two children and a teacher died on the spot. A third child was taken to the hospital, but he also did not resist. The victims are babies, all under the age of two.
Still according to the rescuers, a woman was taken to the Hospital Regional do Oeste, in Chapecó, in a serious condition, but she also died as a result of her injuries. She would be an outsourced employee.
According to information from the Civil Police, the aggressor is a young man of 18 years. The motivation for the attack is unknown. The police are at the scene of the crime to hear witnesses. According to the radio station Centro Oeste, in Pinhalzinho, all the children were removed from school.
The teaching unit serves pre-school students. According to the mayor of the city, Maciel Schneider, three-day mourning will be decreed, suspending all activities in schools.
“It is an inexplicable tragedy. We are putting all the teams to support families. It is something that has no explanation”, according to the mayor.
According to the delegate of Pinhalzinho, Jeronimo Marçal Ferreira, the place was isolated for the IGP (General Institute of Skills) expertise. The bodies of the children and the teacher remained in the classroom where the crime occurred until the arrival of the IML (Instituto Médico Legal).
“The attacker arrived at the school by bicycle at about 10 am, carrying a large knife. About 30 children were at school at the time and he invaded a classroom where they had four children, the teacher and another school employee”, the delegate said.
The rest of the children and teachers managed to lock themselves in the other rooms to protect themselves from the attack. The young man was restrained inside the school by neighbors who heard the screams. That’s when he tried to kill himself.
