A 34-year-old suspect has been detained but “the motive behind the killings is still under investigation”, Uganda’s police force added in a in a brief statement on X.
Angry parents had tried to lynch him before he was detained, news agency AFP quotes police spokeswoman Racheal Kawala as saying.
The school has been named as the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Programme School in the capital’s Makindye Division.
Investigators are at the scene and a police spokesperson said more details would be provided later. Police chief Abas Byakagaba and other senior officers have also been at the school and been briefed on what had happened.
Byakagaba urged the public to remain calm while the police continue to do their work.
Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper is quoting local residents as saying that the suspect posed as a parent to get into the school and then after talking to the administrator attacked the children. The victims were between the ages of two and three, the newspaper adds.
The tragic incident has sent shock waves across the country, raising serious concerns about the safety of learners in the East African nation.
Videos of the aftermath being shared on social media show images of crowds of angry and distressed people, believed to be parents seeking news of their children.
