Kahramanmaraş school attack: Camera records show two children entering school grounds approximately 20 minutes before assault

Video review documents related to the armed attack on Ayser Çalık Secondary School in the Onikişubat district of Kahramanmaraş on April 15, 2026, in which 9 students and 1 teacher lost their lives, have been obtained. The documents show that approximately 20 minutes before the attack, a child with a camera mounted on a helmet, along with another child, entered the school courtyard. The attacker was identified as 8th-grade student İsa Aras Mersinli.

According to timestamps in the document, the child with the camera on the helmet arrived at the school's main entrance gate on an electric bicycle at 13:05:56; at 13:07:57, another child on a bicycle joined him. The pair entered the courtyard at 13:08:29. Physical education teacher H.T. stated in his testimony that he noticed the children were not school students, approached them, and removed them from the courtyard at 13:09:22.

Families of those killed in the attack requested that authorities investigate whether these two children had any connection to İsa Aras Mersinli as part of the investigation. The documents contain no definitive finding of a connection between the two children and the attacker.

In a separate record, attacker Mersinli was seen leaving his home in Haydarbey Neighborhood at 13:14:19; he was carrying a bag on his back, holding a picture folder and a mobile phone, with an earphone in his ear. Mersinli reached the site exit at 13:15:53 and, following the established route, waited approximately one minute in front of the school before entering through the main entrance gate. Meanwhile, physical education teacher H.T., upon hearing gunshots at 13:29:46, left the students in the courtyard and ran away, heading toward an olive grove area across from the school.