Reports: 8 Dead, Including 5 Children, in Brazil School Shooting

A school shooting in Brazil has left five children and three adults dead, according to reports on March 13.

According to reports, two shooters were killed in the incident, which occurred in the Suzano area of Sao Paulo.

Joao Doria, the governor of Sao Paulo, wrote on Twitter that he canceled his agenda for the day and will head to the area, according to Fox News.

Two “armed and hooded adolescents” carried out the attack, said police, reported the BBC.

Doria also wrote that the victims had been “cruelly murdered.”

Other details about the incident are not clear.

According to The Guardian, which reported that nine people were killed in total, another 17 people were injured.

The gunmen, described as young men, entered the school building and fired weapons, the report said.

Police said that the suspects were masked and began shooting at 9:30 a.m. local time. They ultimately turned their guns on themselves.

Brazil experiences the most murders in the world, although school shootings are rare.

Police said about 1,000 children attend the school, which was described in reports as an elementary school.

Women ‘Killed Every Day’

Four women have been killed every day so far this year in Brazil, a rate the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called “alarming” on Monday, Reuters reported.

The IACHR, the human rights arm of the 35-member Organization of American States, said more must be done to prevent and prosecute femicides in Brazil. Femicide is the killing of a woman by a man because of her gender.

“The Commission calls on the Brazilian State to implement comprehensive strategies to prevent these acts, fulfill its obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible, as well as to offer protection and comprehensive reparation to all victims,” the Washington-based IACHR said in a statement.

To stem femicide, Brazil passed a law in 2015 giving a legal definition of the crime, with tougher jail sentences of up to 30 years for convicted offenders.

Brazil, along with about 15 other countries in Latin America, has introduced laws against femicide in recent years.

The region has the world’s highest rates of femicide, according to the United Nations.

Commissioner Margarette May, IACHR president and rapporteur for women’s rights, said Brazil’s 2015 law on femicide was a crucial step in making murders of women more visible.

“However, it is now essential to strengthen prevention and protection measures,” May said in a statement.

Reuters contributed to this report.