A shooting at a school on Tuesday in the northern Brazilian state of Acre left two women dead and two others wounded, including a young student, authorities said.
The provincial government said in a statement that a 13-year-old student confessed to the incident at the Instituto Sao Jose public school in Rio Branco, the capital of the province.
The two deceased are female workers who died at the scene. Another employee and a student were injured by the gunfire and were rushed to the hospital. The injured student, an 11-year-old girl, was shot in the leg.
Officials did not identify the victims. Police said the suspect was arrested and used a security guard’s gun. Local media reported that the weapon belonged to the child’s stepfather, who was also arrested.
The suspect shot several times in the corridor leading to the principal’s office, said Lieutenant Colonel Felipe Russo of the Acre police unit, telling the media. He surrendered to police after the attack.
Eduardo Rodrigues Cavalcante, a receptionist at a hotel near the school, described scenes of fear, as some students tried to cross the wall that separates the school from the hotel.
“The wall is six meters high, and only one person managed to escape and take refuge here in the hotel. Some people stayed on the roof of the school trying to escape,” said the 19-year-old receptionist, adding that she heard “gunshots and loud screams.”
Sergio Vale / REUTERS
Images released by local media show a woman being carried out on a stretcher and heartbreaking scenes outside the school, with people crying and hugging each other.
“The government expresses deep solidarity with the families of the victims, the school community of Instituto Sao Jose and all the education professionals affected by this incident,” said Acre Gov. Mailza Assis in a statement.
Officials said that classes have been suspended for three days in all schools under the government and teams have been assembled to help students and teachers.
Brazil has seen a significant increase in attacks on educational institutions in recent years.
In September 2025, two children were shot dead, and three others were injured in a school in the northeast of Ceara state.
In October 2023, a shooting at a Sao Paulo school left a 17-year-old student dead and three others injured. That same year, a teenager was killed and three others were injured when they were attacked with a knife as they left a school in southeastern Minas Gerais.
In April 2023, a 25-year-old man entered a childcare center in the southern state of Santa Catarina and killed four children between the ages of 3 and 7 with an ax.
In 2022, a former student armed with a semiautomatic rifle and a revolver killed four people and wounded 12 others. in two schools in Brazil. Police later said the suspect had a swastika is pinned to his vest and had been planning the attack for two years.
