Photo: Teachers gunned down by their colleague in Saudi Arabia laid to rest

Five of the six teachers shot by a colleague last week Thursday Feb. 11th at their school were laid to rest on Saturday afternoon Feb. 13th. The funeral was attended by senior education officials, several teachers, relatives, friends of the deceased, and the Saudi education minister, Ahmad Al Eisa.

The sixth victim was buried in another town while the seventh victim of the mass shooting in the southern region of Jazan will be buried after the forensic doctors extract all the bullets from his body as requested by the investigators looking into the incident.

The tragedy occurred on Thursday afternoon when the killer stormed into the education building in Southern Saudi Arabia and opened fire at the men, killing six of them. Witnesses said that he later attempted to flee the scene in his car, but was eventually caught and referred to the public prosecution for investigation.

As people are seeking answers to pressing questions about the reasons behind the unprecedented mass killing in an education office, the mystery remained deep despite all the speculations. A senior education official in Sabya, the district overseeing the education office, denied claims there was antagonism or tension between the killer and the victims.

"The victims fell to the random shooting and they were not personally targeted by the killer as he pointed his machine gun," the official said, quoted by Al Riyadh.

"In fact those who work in the education office did not know the killer and have never seen him before the tragedy."

Source: Saudi daily Al Riyadh