Brazil shooting: Six children killed by masked gunmen at Sao Paulo school

Attackers storm building with ‘several weapons’ before taking their own lives

At least 10 people including six children have been killed in a shooting at a school in Sao Paulo.

Two masked attackers gunned down a worker at a nearby car wash before storming the Raul Brasil school, police said.

Six children and two staff members were killed before the attackers took their own lives, police said.

At least 17 other people, mostly pupils, were also injured.

The school in Suzano, an area on the outskirts of Brazil’s most populous city, has about 1,000 pupils across primary and secondary levels, according to Brazilian media. Classes were just beginning when the shooting began at about 9.30am local time.

“I have just received the sad news that children were cruelly murdered,” Sao Paulo governor Joao Doria tweeted. “I have cancelled all engagements and we are on our way to Suzano to accompany the rescue and attend to the wounded.”

He said the attackers, thought to have been aged in their early twenties, were armed with several weapons. Police are inspecting possible explosives left by the shooters.

Authorities do not believe the gunmen were former pupils of the school and do not know what motivated the attack.

More people are murdered in Brazil each year than anywhere else in the world, but school shootings in the country are rare.

The last major school shooting was in 2011, when 12 children were killed by a former pupil in Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil’s new president Jair Bolsonaro recently signed a decree that loosened gun ownership restrictions.

Additional reporting by agencies