A teenager broke into a daycare center in southern Brazil and stabbed three children and two workers to death Tuesday before being overpowered by police, officials said.
Municipal Education Secretary Gisela Hermann described a “horror scene” at the facility in Saudades, a town in Santa Catarina state.
A female teacher and an educational assistant were among the dead.
Silvia Fernandes dos Santos, a local school board official, said the attack happened around 10:00am local time.
The teenager was taken into police custody after trying to kill himself.
“He tried to … take his own life, but he couldn’t. So he was sent to the nearest hospital to be transferred. People were very angry, and they wanted to deliver their own justice,” dos Santos told reporters.
Police in the city of Chapecó, near Saudades, said they were investigating the incident.