ANSBACH, Germany – An 18-year-old man threw petrol bombs into two classrooms and lashed out with an axe at his school in Germany yesterday, severely wounding two girls, before police shot him in the stomach to stop him.
One girl was in a life-threatening condition after receiving skull injuries, while another was severely burned by a petrol bomb, a police spokesman said. Others had light injuries.
The student was shot several times and arrested, Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann said. “Police smelt burning in the stairs and ran into the suspect, who was armed with an axe, several knives and further petrol bombs,” Mr Herrmann told a news conference.
The student was in a critical condition. Police had evacuated the school’s 700 pupils, who were now with their families or being treated by counsellors. Police said they had no idea what had motivated the young man, who had never aroused attention, to attack his fellow students.
The incident is the latest in a spate of school attacks in Germany. In March, a 17-year-old killed 15 people in a shooting spree at his former school in the southwest town of Winnenden before killing himself. In 2006, a masked man armed with rifles and explosives attacked a school in the western town of Emsdetten, wounding 11 before killing himself.
Germany suffered its worst school shooting in April 2002, when a gunman killed 17 people, including himself, at a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt.
Mr Herrmann said Bavarian police had reacted quickly and effectively after studying the Winnenden attack, and had reached the school several minutes after an alarm was raised.– (Reuters)