Kindergarten Tragedy in Gulbene: 1999 Attack Still Haunts the City

On February 22, 1999, at 2:05 PM, the Gulbene police received an emergency call. A woman screamed that a man with an axe had entered the kindergarten and was chasing children. The patrol car arrived ten minutes later. Police officers saw a horrific scene: pools of blood and four bodies. Three girls and a teacher had been killed. The attacker showed no mercy, inflicting dozens of knife wounds on the victims. The tragedy cast a long shadow over the town, and its memory still affects the residents of Gulbene today.