Students shelter on roof as 13-year-old boy kills two in latest school shooting to rock Brazil

A teenager shot dead two staff members and injured two other people, including an 11-year-old girl, on Tuesday in the latest school shooting to rock Brazil.

A 13-year-old boy was arrested over the attack at Sao Jose Institute, a junior high school in Rio Branco, capital of north-western Acre state, the local government said.

The injured girl was shot in the leg.

The teenager, who is a student at the school, entered the building and fired several shots in a hallway leading to the principal’s office, Lieutenant Colonel Felipe Russo of the Acre military police department told reporters.

He surrendered to police after the attack. His stepfather, who owns the .380-caliber pistol used in the attack, was also arrested.

Police have identified other students who may have cooperated with the attacker, Russo added.

Eduardo Rodrigues Cavalcante, a receptionist at a hotel adjacent to the school, described scenes of terror, as some students tried to jump over a wall separating the school from the hotel.

“The wall is six meters high, and only one person managed to jump over and take refuge here in the hotel. The other people were left on the school roof trying to escape,” the 19-year-old receptionist said, adding that he heard “gunshots and a lot of screaming.”

Images released by a local media outlet showed a woman being evacuated on a stretcher and scenes of heartbreak outside the school, with people crying and hugging each other.

“In the face of this tragedy, the state expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the school community of the Sao Jose Institute, and all education professionals affected by this event,” the state government said.

It added that classes had been suspended for three days at all schools in the state and that psychological support teams had been mobilised to assist students and teachers.

Brazil has seen a sharp increase in attacks on educational institutions in recent years.

In September 2025, two teenagers were shot and killed, and three others were wounded at a school in the north-eastern state of Ceara.

In October 2023, a shooting at a school in Sao Paulo left a 17-year-old student dead and three others wounded.

Shortly beforehand, a teenager was killed and three others were wounded in a knife attack as they left a school in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais.

In April of the same year, a 25-year-old man entered a daycare centre in the southern state of Santa Catarina and killed four children between the ages of three and seven with an axe.