Suspended schoolboy guns down his teacher

In a rare outbreak of gun violence in the Netherlands, a student shot and critically wounded his high school biology teacher today before fleeing the scene.

The teacher, who is also the deputy principal at the Stevincollege in The Hague, was shot in the head and taken by helicopter to hospital. One of his pupils said he had a likeable and gentle manner.

Students said the 17-year-old gunman was of Turkish descent and that the school has regular police visits.

Mohammed Ouledle said “fights are normal here, but nothing like this.”

Another student was in the room when the shooting took place during lunch hour and described the boy as an “aggressive” type.

She said he walked into the crowded cafeteria and shot the teacher in the forehead with a single bullet. “I though it was fireworks. I head people scream and thought it was a joke.”

Another pupil said: “I know who he is, everyone knows who he is. He has a reputation for being wild.”

The school, with several hundred students of mostly Moroccan and Turkish origin, was cleared and the neighbourhood closed to the public as police investigators moved in with sniffer dogs to search for the suspect and a weapon.

The gunman, whose identity was not released, apparently carried out the attack after being suspended for misbehaviour a few days earlier. It was unclear why he had been punished.

The incident immediately triggered public debate about violence against teachers and the possible need for security measures at schools.

Education Minister Maria van der Hoeven was briefed about the shooting while on a working visit to China and described the act as “incomprehensible and horrible.”

The national teachers union called the shooting shocking and said it was the “first of its kind in the Netherlands.”

“It shows that the violence in our society doesn’t exclude schools and education personnel,” it said. “But even tight security could not have prevented the awful events of today.”

School shootings are virtually unheard of in the Netherlands where tight gun laws strictly limit the availability of firearms.

In 1999, a student, also of Turkish descent and 17, opened fire on other students in the southern Dutch town of Veghel, wounding five people. He was jailed for five years.