Teacher Shot Dead by Nephew at School in Southern Turkey

A man shot and killed his uncle at a high school in southern Turkey on Monday, officials said, in the latest in a string of shootings that have raised concerns about safety at educational facilities and the spread of firearms.

The 30-year-old gunman shot Mehmet Bilgili, a Turkish language and literature teacher, in the yard of Farabi Anatolian High School in Cardak, on the outskirts of the city of Osmaniye, according to Provincial Gov. Mehmet Fatih Serdengecti.

The suspect used an unlicensed handgun after an argument, and was later detained. Bilgili was taken to hospital but died shortly afterward.

Serdengecti said the man had been receiving psychiatric treatment for many years and had fallen out with his uncle.

Adem Yucel, who heads the Osmaniye branch of the teachers' union Egitim-Is, questioned how an armed man was able to enter the school grounds.

"We want schools where our children go to school without fear, our teachers perform their duties safely and parents send their children to school with peace of mind," he said.

The shooting came after a 15-year-old student wounded 11 classmates with a shotgun at a school in Turgutlu, in western Manisa province, last week.

Turkey was shaken by two school shootings in as many days in April, prompting increased security at educational facilities at the start of the academic year this month.

In the first incident, 16 people, mostly students, were wounded when a former student opened fire at a high school in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa. The assailant later killed himself.

The following day, a 14-year-old student attacked two classrooms at his school in nearby Kahramanmaras province, killing eight students and a teacher and wounding 13 others. The attacker was killed by police.

After the April shootings, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to make school safety a top priority and to tighten gun-ownership regulations.

According to the Hope Foundation, which lobbies for greater gun control, more than 26,000 people have been killed in armed incidents, including by weapons other than guns, since 2014. Last year, there were 2,784 violent crimes involving firearms.