At least four children were killed on Wednesday and three wounded in an attack on a kindergarten in the southern Brazilian city of Blumenau, a government source told AFP.

The perpetrator of the attack, a 25-year-old man, invaded the Cantinho Bom Pastor nursery with a knife around 09.00 local time (12.00 GMT), attacked the minors and then surrendered to the authorities, according to the Military Police, cited by local media.

Several units of firefighters and police have gone to the scene to attend the emergency.

"Four minors were confirmed dead and three were transferred to the hospital," said the Fire Department, which reported that "other public security bodies" are also acting in the area to investigate the episode.

At the moment, the state of health of the injured is unknown, although the local press indicates that there is at least one child with a serious clinical picture.

A "monstrosity"

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned "the monstrosity" that occurred: "There is no greater pain than that of a family that loses its children or grandchildren, even more in an act of violence against innocent and defenseless children," he wrote in a message on Twitter.

Similar attacks have been repeated in recent months in other schools in Brazil, a country that until recently was not accustomed to such violent acts.

This attack comes ten days after another that took place in a school in Sao Paulo, where a 13-year-old boy stabbed to death a teacher and injured four other people.

Last November, a 16-year-old boy shot dead four people and wounded more than a dozen in two attacks on schools in the city of Aracruz, in Espirito Santo state.

In 2019, two former students entered a school in the city of Suzano, about 60 kilometers from Sao Paulo, killed five students and two workers, and left a dozen injured, before both took their own lives.

However, Brazil's deadliest attack on record came in 2011: 12 children were killed when a man opened fire at his former nursery school in Realengo, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, before killing himself.

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