A man armed with a hatchet has killed four children at a nursery school in Brazil.
The attacker is understood to have jumped over a wall before invading the centre in the southern city of Blumenau on Wednesday, killing four youngsters aged between five and seven.
At least five other children were wounded, authorities said.
The man later turned himself in at a police station.
He did not appear to have any connection with the private daycare centre, which offers nursery services and after-school activities.
Authorities were searching for a motive, the police detective leading the investigation, Ronnie Esteves, told television reporters in Blumenau.
Images from the scene showed weeping parents outside the daycare centre, called Cantinho do Bom Pastor.
The attack took place in the centre’s playground, according to the local affiliate of television network Globo.
Police have yet to confirm the identity of the suspect.
Blumenau’s mayor, Mário Hildebrandt, suspended classes on Wednesday and said he will declare a 30-day mourning period.
The state government said in a statement that rumours circulating on social media of other potential attacks were false.
The mayor said five wounded children were take to hospitals. One was in serious condition.
School attacks in Brazil have happened with greater frequency in recent years.
Last week, a student in Sao Paulo fatally stabbed a teacher and wounded several others in Sao Paulo.
Brazil has seen at least one past attack on a daycare centre. That attack also occurred in Santa Catarina state, in 2021, when an assailant used a dagger to kill three children under two years old and two adults.
From 2000 to 2022, 16 attacks or violent episodes happened in schools, four of them in the second half of last year, according to a report from researchers led by Daniel Cara, an education professor at the University of Sao Paulo.
The researchers prepared the report for the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“There is no greater pain than that of a family who loses its children or grandchildren, even more so in an act of violence against innocent and defenseless kids,” Lula wrote Wednesday on Twitter. “My thoughts and prayers are the families of victims and the community of Blumenau in the face of the monstrosity of what occurred.”
