A man has killed four children in a stabbing attack at a nursery school in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, police have said.

“We confirm a tragic incident at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program school, in Makindye Division, Kampala City, where a male suspect brutally stabbed and killed four juveniles,” the Ugandan police said in a post on X on Thursday.

Police Spokesperson Rachael Kawala told local media that one girl and three boys were killed by a 34-year-old attacker.

The man had gained access to the school and attacked an “unspecified number of children with a sharp object”, according to the local Daily Monitor.

“Eyewitnesses say the suspect disguised himself as a parent and first entered the school offices, where he briefly engaged the administrator in charge,” the paper reported.

“He later stepped outside, locked the gate, and began attacking the children one after another.”

The alleged attacker was stopped by a security guard from a neighbourhood church, the Daily Monitor reported, describing the area as an “upmarket suburb of Kampala”.

“The suspect has been apprehended,” the police post on X confirmed. But it added that “the motive behind the killings is still under investigation”.

Video footage aired by local broadcaster NTV showed some parents weeping. Police also fired into the air to disperse an angry crowd that had gathered near the school, apparently trying to lynch the suspect.

This kind of attack is rare in Kampala, a city of roughly three million people.