Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday (April 5) called the attack with an axe at a pre-school in Santa Catarina a ‘monstrosity’, a report by the news agency Reuters said. During a meeting with government ministers and governors in Brasilia, President Lula said, “Today is a day that leaves us human beings angry because of a figure that seems to be a human: it has a head, arms, legs, and eyes, but that committed a monstrosity that all of us who are fathers, mothers, grandparents, uncles would never imagine could happen.”
Lula said the attacker must have come from another planet, a hate planet and had the stupidity to kill four children with an axe.
“I don’t have words to comfort the families; whoever has lost a relative knows there are no words. But I think it is important for us to do a gesture, so let’s have a minute of silence in honour of those children who were victims of that barbarity,” the president added.
The attacker, a 25-year-old man, armed with a small axe climbed over a wall into the Cantinho do Bom Pastor daycare centre in the city of Blumenau, killing four children and injuring five others.
According to the police, said three boys – two aged 4 and one aged 5 – and one girl aged 7 were killed. The police added that four of the injured children between the ages of 3 to 5 were hospitalised, and the fifth child had minor injuries.
Local security chief Marcio Alberto Filippi told reporters the attacker turned himself in to police after the rampage.
Meanwhile, residents in Blumenau gathered for a candlelight vigil to mourn the children killed. Visuals shared by the news agency Reuters showed family and friends of the victims and survivors praying, leaving flowers, and lighting candles outside the school.
This attack came nearly a week after a 13-year-old student stabbed a teacher to death and wounded five others in a school in Sao Paulo.
(With inputs from agencies)
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