Four children were killed and four others injured in an ax attack on a kindergarten in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina on Wednesday, local police said.

TIME: A man with an ax attacked a kindergarten/preschool in Blumenau, #Brazil4 children reportedly killed pic.twitter.com/WzmUCMgNC5

— Siraj Noorani (@sirajnoorani) April 5, 2023

Police told local media that the attacker had surrendered and was in custody.

According to firefighters, about 40 children were in the kindergarten at the time of the shelling.

“A militant broke into the school and killed four children. There are also four injured,” explained a local government source in the state of Santa Catarina.

According to the BBC, the attacker jumped over the wall to get into the building where the children were.

Santo Antonio Hospital said four children under the age of two were under medical supervision following the attack.

This is not the first time that a kindergarten has been attacked. In 2021, an 18-year-old man killed two employees and three children at a kindergarten in the municipality of Saudantes.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tweeted that “there is no greater pain than that of a family that has lost their children or grandchildren, especially when it comes from an act of violence against innocent children who cannot defend themselves.”

Não há dor maior Que a de uma família que perde seus filhos ou netos, ainda mais em um ato de violencia contra crianças inocentes e undefesas. My feelings and prayers are for the families of the victims and the Blumenau community due to the horrendous incident that took place in the Bom Pastor nursery.

— Lula (@LulaOfficial) April 5, 2023

Source: Reuters, BBC.