Four children – a girl and three boys – have been brutally stabbed and killed at a school in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, the police have said.
A 34-year-old person of interest has been detained, but “the motive behind the killings is still under investigation,” Uganda’s police force added in a brief statement on X.
The school has been named the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program School in the capital’s Makindye Division.
Investigators are at the scene, and a police spokesperson said that more details would be provided later. Police chief Abas Byakagaba and other senior officers have visited the school and received a briefing on the incident.
Byakagaba urged the public to remain calm while the police continue to do their work.
Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper is quoting local residents as saying that the suspect posed as a parent to get into the school, and then, after talking to the administrator, attacked the children. The victims were between the ages of two and three, the newspaper adds.
The tragic incident has sent shock waves across the country, raising serious concerns about the safety of learners in the East African nation.
Social media videos of the aftermath reveal crowds of angry and distressed people.
The suspect was quickly apprehended to “prevent him from being lynched”, local journalist Erich Mboowa has reported on X.
