A daycare center in Blumenau, a city in southern Brazil, was attacked with an ax, leaving four kids dead and four more hurt.
Three boys and a girl who were killed were between the ages of 5 and 7, according to the neighborhood police.
Santa Catarina‘s governor, Jorginho Mello, announced the arrest of a male suspect through Twitter.
The suspect, a 25-year-old man, allegedly leaped over a wall onto the daycare center’s playground before attacking the kids, a police official told CNN Brasil.
Although teachers defended the kids, he ran away and eventually surrendered to police, the official said.
Mello expressed his solidarity with the victims.
“May God comfort the hearts of all families in this time of deep sorrow,” he said.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also gave his condolences.
“There is no greater pain than that of a family that loses its children or grandchildren, even more so in an act of violence against innocent and defenseless children,” Lula wrote on Twitter.