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A female student brought what was reported to be an unloaded pump-action shotgun to a school in Türkiye's eastern Van province on Monday morning, prompting teachers and parents to intervene before police seized the weapon and took her in for questioning.
The incident occurred at Polatoglu Primary and Middle School in the Istasyon neighborhood of Van's Tusba district.
The unnamed student was spotted arriving at the school with the shotgun, which reports said was unloaded.
Teachers and parents intervened and took the shotgun from the student before immediately notifying police.
Officers arriving at the school seized the weapon and took the student to a police station to give a statement.
Parents who learned about the incident later gathered at the school.
The Van incident follows another case in Türkiye's Mediterranean province of Mersin, where a primary school teacher found a handgun in the school bag of a 7-year-old first-grade student during a ceremony in the schoolyard.
The incident occurred in Tarsus district. Police took the student to the Children's Branch Directorate and detained his father after identifying him as the owner of the weapon.
The father, described as a contractor, told police that the handgun was licensed and belonged to him. He said he had placed it in his child's school bag himself and later forgot that it was there.
That case came days after a shooting outside a high school in Manisa province on Sept. 22, when a 15-year-old identified as H.O. opened fire and injured 11 students in Turgutlu district.
The incidents also follow two school shootings in southeastern Türkiye earlier this year.
On April 15, a 14-year-old student opened fire at a middle school in Kahramanmaras, killing a teacher and nine students and injuring 15 others.
The attacker was also killed. Investigators later found that he had used firearms belonging to his father, while prosecutors said the attack had been planned in advance.
The Kahramanmaras shooting came a day after a former student opened fire at a vocational high school in Sanliurfa, injuring 16 people before killing himself.
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