Brasília, Brazil

A 16-year-old boy killed a child and injured two other people during an attack at a school in southern Brazil, authorities said Tuesday.

The attack -- which took place at the Maria Nascimento Giacomazzi school in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul -- involved two children, an eight-year-old girl and nine-year-old boy, as well as a 34-year-old teacher who tried to intervene in the assault.

The male child did not survive his injuries, but the female child and teacher were in stable condition, police said.

Law enforcement did not confirm the weapon used in the attack, but Estacao Mayor Geverson Zimmermann told reporters the victims suffered stab wounds.

He added that the suspected attacker was known to teachers at the school and had been undergoing "psychological treatment."

Zimmermann said security at the school had been reinforced recently, with fences added and increased personnel, after a recent increase in attacks at educational centers.

In April 2023, four children between the ages of four and seven were murdered with an axe at a daycare center in Bluemenau, in the southern state of Santa Catarina.

Two months later, two teenagers ages 16 and 17 died when a man opened fire at a school in the southern Brazilian state of Parana.

The worst attack at an educational institution in Brazil took place in 2011, when 12 children died after a man opened fire at a kindergarten in Realengo, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, before he took his own life.

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© Agence France-Presse