Shooting at school in northeast Brazil leaves 2 teenagers dead, 3 others injured

SAO PAULO — Two teenagers have died and three others were left wounded after a shooting at a school in Ceara state in northeastern Brazil on Thursday, authorities said.

Unidentified suspects opened fire from the sidewalk outside the school in the city of Sobral, shooting the victims in the parking lot, according to the state's Secretariat of Public Security and Social Defense. Three others were injured and taken to hospitals in the region.

Officials did not disclose the victims’ identities or confirm whether they were students. Police said drugs, a precision scale and packaging materials were found at the scene. A hunt is on for the suspects.

Gov. Elmano de Freitas called the shooting “the most serious and intolerable event.

“I have ordered the leadership of the Secretariat of Public Security to go to the municipality and take all necessary measures,” Freitas said in a post on X. “I express my solidarity with the families and friends of the victims of this cruel act.”

In 2022, a teenager opened fire on three classmates at another school in Sobral, killing one.

The Brazilian Forum on Public Security, a non-profit organization that tracks violence in the country, says Ceara has the third-highest number of violent deaths. The violent death rate in the state was 37.5 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024, an increase of 11% compared with 2023.