Turkish students tell of shootings pre horror

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Kenan Bayrak and Erdinç Aslan said they were on the lower floor during the shooting in Winnenden, Germany. "But we were still frightened to death," they told the Anatolia news agency.

"We heard the gunshots while we were in the classroom. Our teacher locked the door and told us to run away. Afterward, we jumped out of the window and gathered in the building where the swimming pool is located," Bayrak said. "Immediately afterward, we called our parents. We were so frightened that he would kill us from the back door. I saw him running away with his gun." The principal of the German high school warned teachers with a prearranged code over the public address system, likely preventing the teenager from killing any more than the 12 students and teachers slain there, German media reports said yesterday.

After the former student entered the school Wednesday morning and opened fire, the principal put the emergency plan in effect, quickly broadcasting a coded message to teachers: "Frau Koma is coming," students said.

In German the word "amoklauf" is used to describe school shootings, and "koma" is the reverse of the word "amok." Germany's Bild newspaper reported that German educators established the coded alert after a deadly school shooting in Erfurt in 2002 as a way to warn teachers. Kenan’s father Sinan Bayrak said he was at work when he heard about the rampage. "I came to school right away and waited for three hours because the police did not let us in," he said. "This is an awful situation. We are all extremely sad."

Aslan, another student at Albertville High, said he was deeply sorry for the students who died. A girl of Turkish origin named Büşra Paloğlu, who was in the same class with the victims, was sent to hospital after she suffered serious trauma, broadcaster CNN Türk reported. "Büşra told me the attacker started firing right after he came to class. She was shocked after the incident," Büşra’s father told Hürriyet. "Fortunately, my daughter emerged unscathed from the shooting."

Officials said that state police had received special training that involved sending small teams into the building in the event of a school shooting, as happened on Wednesday. They credited this, coupled with the warning from the principal, for preventing further deaths, according to The Associated Press. Victims were primarily female: eight of nine students killed were girls, and all three teachers were women. Three men were killed later.