Teachers and pupils injured in Spanish school knife attack

Madrid, Sept. 28, (dpa/GNA) – At least three teachers and two pupils were injured in a knife attack in a secondary school in the south-western Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera on Thursday, police reported.

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the incident. Two knives believed to have been used in the attack were found on the boy, a police spokesman told journalists.

He added that the school had been evacuated. Speaking on television, Jerez de la Frontera Mayor María José García Pelayo said an investigation had been launched. The cause behind the stabbings was unknown.

According to media reports, none of those hurt had life-threatening injuries. A female teacher is being treated in hospital for an eye injury.

The alleged assailant can be held criminally responsible under Spanish law, as he has passed the age of 14.

A female pupil told the El País newspaper that the attacker had drawn two kitchen knives from his rucksack at around 8:20 am (0620 GMT) and stabbed another pupil sitting in front of him, shouting: “I’ll kill you.”

He then attacked pupils and teachers in the classroom and other classrooms.

“I did not know him well (…) but he was always alone,” she told El País. She also described him as intelligent and hardworking. His classmates had mocked him for this, she said.

GNA