An 18-year-old student attacked members of the Instituto Obispo Silva Lezaeta community in Calama with a bladed weapon on Friday, killing a 59-year-old inspector and injuring a teaching assistant and three students. The attacker was detained in flagrancy by Carabineros after being restrained by teachers. Local authorities declared three days of communal mourning and President José Antonio Kast sent ministers to the site.
The attack took place around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, March 27, in the patio of the Instituto Obispo Silva Lezaeta, a Catholic school in Calama, Antofagasta Region. According to regional prosecutor Juan Castro Bekios, the fourth-year high school student first assaulted inspector María Victoria, 59, causing her death from neck wounds. He then attacked a teaching assistant who tried to help her, leaving her in serious condition, and three underage students, one seriously injured and two with minor injuries. All injured were treated at Hospital Carlos Cisternas.
Teachers restrained the attacker until Carabineros arrived, who detained him and found in his backpacks two knives, matches, a mask, duct tape, padlocks, food, and a fake bomb mockup with a mocking message, without explosives. The Special Police Operations Group (GOPE) intervened to rule out risks. The PDI Homicide Brigade leads the investigation, and the suspect will be arraigned on Saturday in Calama Guarantee Court.
Digital posts linked to the attacker, under the username 'hwyrup', include a YouTube video titled 'Ataque en el Instituto Lazaeta' with song lyrics about killing and 'Dies Irae 27/03', and an Instagram photo of a hooded figure holding a knife to a plush toy.
Mayor Eliecer Chamorro declared communal mourning from March 27 to 29, suspending municipal festivities and requesting class suspension next week. He offered to install metal detectors in Province El Loa schools. President José Antonio Kast condemned the incident, stating 'a school cannot be a place of violence', and instructed Education Minister María Paz Arzola and Security Minister Trinidad Steinert to travel north. Steinert announced a lawsuit for homicide and advocated for weapon detection portals. Lawmakers and the Teachers' College expressed outrage and urged measures against school violence.
