A 15-year-old stabbed eight girls at a middle school in Istanbul on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, and one of them, a 10-year-old, died of her wounds hours later.
The attacker struck at around 8:40 a.m. local time (0540 GMT) at Kayaşehir Sheikh Shamil Imam Hatip Middle School, in the Kayabaşı neighborhood of Istanbul’s Başakşehir district. She walked into the schoolyard wearing the school’s uniform and attacked pupils at random.
She Wore the School Uniform
Turkish Education Minister Yusuf Tekin confirmed the death hours after the attack. “One of our students lost their life in the incident in Başakşehir,” Tekin said. The student had been seriously wounded, according to his announcement.
Turkish media identified the dead student as Eslem Sare Bulut, 10. The Interior Ministry said in a statement on X that one of the students receiving treatment died despite medical efforts to save her, and that treatment was continuing for the seven other wounded students.
“She entered the premises wearing school uniform and stabbed the children indiscriminately,” Istanbul Gov. Davut Gül told reporters. He added that the attacker attends a different school from the one she entered.
Police identified the suspect as a 15-year-old female 10th grader from another school, a high school at the other end of the city from the attack site. Cemil Özgür Önegi, the Başakşehir district governor, confirmed that a high school student carried out the attack.
School security personnel seized the attacker and turned her in to police, who detained her. Officials described the stabbing in the schoolyard as indiscriminate, saying she struck the children she encountered and singled out no one.
Five Hurt, One in Surgery
Police and medical teams reached the school after the first reports. Ambulances took the wounded to nearby hospitals. All eight victims were girls, and the injured students were aged between 10 and 13, according to local reports.
Gül and Istanbul Police Chief Selami Yıldız went to Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital for a briefing on the students’ conditions. The governor then told reporters that five of the students had minor injuries and that their treatment was expected to finish during the day.
Two others were still being treated and showing signs of improvement, he said in the same remarks. One child was undergoing surgery at that time. Pressed on the case at the hospital, Gül said the matter now rests with the legal system.
Court Remands Suspect and Parents
Classes at the school were suspended Tuesday, Oct. 6, and Wednesday, Oct. 7. An Istanbul court imposed a broadcast ban on coverage of the attack.
A court remanded the suspect and her mother and father in custody on Wednesday, Oct. 7, Turkish media reported. Anadolu Agency reported the same day that two of the injured students had been discharged and five remained in treatment.
Shootings by Teenagers This Year
The attack hit a country already uneasy about violence in schools. In September 2026, a teenager opened fire outside a school in western Turkey and wounded 11 pupils, three of them seriously. An arrest followed.
Teenagers carried out two shooting attacks on consecutive days in southern Turkey in April 2026. Those attacks drew shock and public concern about security in schools.