Brazilian police rescued 13 children held hostage at a kindergarten in the southern city of Curitiba after killing a suspect who threatened to set the building on fire, local officials said.
Alexandre Lopes Dias, commander of the Parana state military police special operations unit, told reporters that at least one child was injured in Friday's incident, but did not specify who was hurt or how the injury occurred.
Parana police spokeswoman Leticia Martins told journalists outside the school that the suspect jumped over the school gate, broke into a kindergarten classroom and took 13 children hostage.
He then spread a flammable substance around the room and held a lighter in his hand. He was carrying a knife and an object initially believed to be a gun, which was later determined to be a replica.
"Our negotiation teams were deployed but saw no alternative other than to neutralize him," Martins said, without saying whether the suspect had given any specific motive for his actions.
The incident took place in the Sao Braz neighborhood of Curitiba, a city of 1.8 million people located 400 km south of Sao Paulo.
Lopes Dias told reporters the suspect was identified as a man with schizophrenia, but did not disclose his identity or how he was killed.
"Throughout the negotiations, he always kept all the children around him, with one sitting on his lap," the police official said.
Children beaten
The negotiations lasted up to three hours. The children became agitated, and the attacker began beating them, Lopes Dias told reporters.
"When we realized the children were becoming increasingly panicked and the attacker began assaulting them, we decided to carry out a tactical intervention to avoid a bigger problem," he explained.
Local media broadcast footage of tearful parents outside the school waiting for news while negotiations between the suspect and police were under way. Minutes after a blast that local media described as a stun grenade, officers appeared carrying some of the children out.
"We entered the classroom using a tactical approach that posed little risk to the children," Lopes Dias added.
Curitiba Mayor Eduardo Pimentel wrote on Instagram: "13 children alive and safe! After moments of tension and heartbreak, this is the news we were all waiting for."
Brazil has experienced a number of school attacks in recent years. In April 2023, a man used an axe to kill four children at a daycare center in Blumenau, also in southern Brazil.
Curitiba city authorities said in a statement that the children and school staff would receive psychological support.
