An outbreak of violence at Turkish schools on October 6 escalated into a full-blown crisis after a 10-year-old girl was killed and seven pupils were injured in a frenzied stabbing spree apparently committed at an Istanbul middle school by an ex-pupil who disguised herself in her old school uniform.

Turkey is now contending with a rash of blade attacks and copycat threats made across the country.

The alleged attacker, a 15-year-old who presently attends a high school, was identified as F.M. She was said to have slipped into her old school, Kayasehir Seyh Samil Imam Hatip Elementary School in Istanbul’s Basaksehir district. The assailant allegedly wielded a knife brought from home as she began indiscriminately stabbing students in the school courtyard. Eight schoolgirls aged between 10 and 13 suffered wounds before school security could tackle and subdue the suspect. Ten-year-old Eslem Sare Bulut later died from her injuries in hospital. Three students remained hospitalised in a serious condition.

On October 7, broadcasting watchdog RTUK imposed a gagging order on media reporting of the incident.

Amid shock at the tragedy in Basaksehir, the tide of violence continued. On October 7, there was a knife attack inside a classroom at Sezai Karakoc Anatolian High School in Istanbul's Esenyurt district. A sixteen-year-old student, named as A.C., was said to have stabbed three classmates during a dispute, using a blade purchased online.

Investigators revealed that A.C. was already subject to a prosecution over online posts that praised the perpetrators of previous attacks at schools in Turkey and other countries. After the attack, his parents were detained, accused of failing in their legal duty of care.

Other incidents endured by Turkey during the tragic 48-hour period included the detention af a 15-year-old student in Istanbul’s Kucukcekmece district who was accused of posting videos on social media in which they threatened classmates while holding a shotgun.

In Edirne, an eighth-grade student and his parents were taken into custody after teachers discovered a blank-firing replica handgun inside the child's schoolbag.

Earlier incidents in what now amounts to a school security emergency for Turkey include the September 22 wounding by a 15-year-old boy of 11 fellow students in a shooting outside a Manisa province high school. Also, on September 28, a literature teacher was shot dead in a school courtyard in the southern province of Osmaniye.