Eslem Sare Bulut, 10, died after a 15-year-old stabbed eight girls at a middle school in Istanbul’s Başakşehir district on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, and her family, local mourners and several officials attended her funeral on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Footage showed mourners gathering to pray by the child’s coffin before she was buried in Konuklu, a village in northern Turkey’s Bartın province.
The attacker entered the schoolyard of the Kayaşehir Sheikh Shamil Imam Hatip Middle School in the Kayabaşı neighborhood at about 8:40 a.m. local time (0540 GMT) wearing a school uniform and attacked pupils at random. All eight of the wounded were girls, and the injured students were aged between 10 and 13, according to local reports.
Turkish Education Minister Yusuf Tekin confirmed the death of a student who had been seriously wounded hours after the attack. Tekin said, “One of our students lost their life in the incident in Başakşehir.”
The Interior Ministry said in a statement on X that one student receiving treatment died despite medical efforts to save her. The ministry said in the same statement that treatment was continuing for the seven other wounded students.
Suspect and Parents Detained
Police identified the suspect as a 15-year-old female 10th grader from a different high school.
School security personnel seized the attacker and turned her in to the police, who detained her. Cemil Özgür Önegi, the Başakşehir district governor, confirmed that a high school student carried out the attack. Police also detained the suspect’s parents in connection with the Oct. 6 attack. A court formally arrested the suspect and both of her parents on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
The Ministry of National Education said in a press release that both a “judicial and administrative investigation have been launched into the matter,” and called the incident “deeply unsettling.” The ministry said in the press release that it had provided “psychosocial support teams” for “students, teachers and parents affected by this heinous incident.”
Governor Visits the Wounded
Istanbul Gov. Davut Gül told reporters, “She entered the premises wearing a school uniform and stabbed the children indiscriminately.” Gül added that the attacker attends a different school from the one she entered.
Gül and Istanbul Police Chief Selami Yıldız visited the injured at Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital and received a briefing on their conditions. The governor told reporters afterward that five of the students had minor injuries and that their treatment was expected to finish during the day. He said two others were still being treated and showed signs of improvement. Gül, pressed on the case at the hospital, said the matter was now with the legal system.
Police and medical teams went to the school after the first reports, and ambulances carried the wounded to nearby hospitals. The school suspended classes on Oct. 6 and Oct. 7, and an Istanbul court imposed a broadcast ban on coverage of the attack.
Violence in Turkish Schools
The attack struck a country already uneasy about violence in schools. In September 2026, a teenager opened fire outside a school in western Turkey, wounding 11 pupils, three of them seriously, before being arrested. In April 2026, teenagers carried out two shooting attacks on consecutive days in southern Turkey, causing shock and public concern about security in schools.
