In Turkey, it is just six days since a 15-year-old boy wounded 11 fellow students in a shooting outside a Manisa province high school and three days since a seven-year-old child was found with his father’s handgun in his bag at a Mersin province school. Yet on September 28, the country was shaken by another pair of alarming gun-related incidents. Anxieties over campus safety and firearm accessibility are naturally intensifying.

In the southern province of Osmaniye, tragedy struck at Farabi Anatolian High School in the village of Cardak. Mehmet Bilgili, a literature teacher, was shot dead in the school courtyard, allegedly by his 41-year-old nephew, the education ministry announced.

The gunman breached the school premises while classes were in session and opened fire near a gazebo. He was able to do so despite the presence of two security guards on site, one armed. The guards tackled and subdued the assailant shortly after the shooting. Bilgili later succumbed to his injuries.

Classes at the high school were suspended for one day. Psycho-social support teams were brought in to help traumatised students and staff.

Hours earlier on the same morning, a separate crisis unfolded in Turkey’s eastern province of Van. Panic erupted at Polatoglu primary and elementary school in Tusba district when a young female student arrived on campus carrying an unloaded shotgun.

Alert teachers and parents intervened, fearing shots could be fired. They disarmed the girl and turned the weapon over to police officers who arrived on the scene. The student was taken into custody for juveniles by authorities. She was questioned as shocked parents rushed to the school grounds.