Family members and mourners attend the funerals for nine victims killed in a school shooting at the Abdulhamid Han Mosque in the southern province of Kahramanmaras on April 16, 2026. (Photo by Yasin Akgul / AFP)
Kahramanmaras, Turkiye: Eleven-year-old Yusuf trembled and sobbed as he clung to his father. His close friend Bayram, 10, was among eight pupils and a teacher killed on Wednesday when a 14-year-old student opened fire in their classroom, in an attack without precedent in Turkiye.
"Our grief is endless. These children were like our own. They were all innocent," said Vezir Yucel, Yusuf's father, speaking at the funeral of four of the victims on Thursday.
The shooting drew a crowd of more than a thousand mourners to the southern province of Kahramanmaras.
"Yusuf and Bayram had been playing football at the same academy for a year and a half. They also played video games together. He was a well-behaved, hardworking boy!" Yucel said, his eyes red as he held his son close.
The shock has reverberated across the country. While Turkiye has endured repeated tragedies from earthquakes to mining disasters and terror attacks, it had never before experienced a mass killing on a school campus.
"We are deeply saddened. We didn't know the victims, but something like this should never happen to children," said Leyla Naz Kurtgoz, a 19-year-old student who attended the funeral with her mother.
She noted that the slain pupils had survived the devastating earthquake that struck Kahramanmaras and several other provinces in February 2023, killing around 60,000 people in Turkiye and neighbouring Syria.
The epicentre of the quake was close to Kahramanmaras, a conservative city of about 500,000 nestled at the foot of a mountain and heavily damaged by the tremor. Nearly 13,000 people died in the province.
"These children had already suffered so much because of the earthquake, which makes this even more devastating," Kurtgoz said, dressed in black.
'Apocalyptic'
Outside a large mosque, the coffins of the young victims all aged 10 and 11 were arranged side by side on the forecourt, each draped in a Turkish flag.
One father sat motionless beside the coffin of his daughter, 10-year-old Zeynep, accompanied by his young son perched silently on a stool.
Nearby, other relatives pressed their faces against the coffins for a final farewell.
As an imam recited prayers, a middle-aged man in the crowd burst into tears.
"It's all piling up: the 2023 earthquake, Covid before that, and now this massacre," said Ilker Bas, 18, standing with friends.
"Mentally, we are at rock bottom."
A biology teacher from the city said her grief was "indescribable," adding that she feared the attack could inspire others.
At the city cemetery, where several of the victims were laid to rest on Thursday afternoon, Nilgun Ruci sat alone, staring at the ground.
On Wednesday, the 55-year-old housewife rushed to Ayser Calik School after hearing gunshots.
"It was apocalyptic. People were running everywhere, searching for their children," she said, wiping away tears.
When she arrived, she saw the daughter of a neighbour lying gravely wounded.
"She had been shot in the leg and the shoulder," Ruci said. "At first I thought she had fainted. Today I learned that she died."
