Nine people, including several children, were stabbed to death on the outskirts of the capital of Suriname, Paramaribo, just days after the Christmas holidays, the country’s national police said Sunday.
Suriname National Police said a 42-year-old suspect attacked his four children, ages 5 to 15, overnight Saturday into Sunday, then attacked five neighbors between the ages of 7 and 80.
Nine people died at the scene of the attack, which occurred in Richelieu, in the Commewijne district, while the suspect’s oldest daughter and a 72-year-old neighbor were rushed to the hospital for treatment, police said.
According to police, when they arrived at the scene the suspect tried to attack officers with a sharp object and was subsequently shot in the legs.
Authorities have yet to name a motive in the attack.
The gruesome incident has rattled the small South American nation. The country’s president, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, called it a tragic and shocking incident during a holiday season that should be characterized by “solidarity and hope.”
In a social media post, she said the suspect killed several of his children and neighbors and offered her condolences in an “unimaginably difficult time.”
In a statement from the office of the president, the government said it will cover the costs of the funerals “as a sign of solidarity and condolences.”
Suriname — a nation of about 634,000 people that borders French Guiana, Guyana and Brazil and became independent from Dutch colonial rule in 1975 — had maintained a relatively low homicide rate for years, but saw a soaring number of homicides in 2024, according to the think tank InSight Crime. Homicides increased by some 382 percent as of September last year, it said.
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