An
American student stabbed 19 teenagers and a security guard in a bloody
30-minute rampage in the classrooms and hallways of a Pennsylvania high school
on Wednesday, officials said.
At
least four students were critically injured in the shocking assault at Franklin
Regional High School, said Thomas Seefeld, chief of police in Murrysville, an
outer suburb of Pittsburgh.
The
16-year-old boy walked down a hallway flashing two knives, stabbing fellow
pupils and the guard as they began arriving for what should have been a routine
school day, Seefeld said.
भिडिओ हेर्न तल क्लिक गर्नु होस्
Nineteen
students and one male security guard were injured, mostly in the chest and
stomach, officials confirmed.
The
school principal and another member of staff tried to overpower the suspect who
was then arrested, Seefeld said.
Officials
said the assault began at 7:13am (1213 GMT) was over by 7:45am.
It
was not immediately clear what prompted the assailant, who is himself being
treated for a hand injury, to attack.
भिडिओ हेर्न तल क्लिक गर्नु होस्
Doctor
Mark Rubino at Forbes Regional Hospital, which is treating eight of the
victims, said he expected everyone to survive despite what he called "deep
penetrating" stab wounds.
The
knife wounds, most of them to the lower abdomen, caused significant injuries to
internal organs, Rubino said.
Three
of the victims were still in surgery and the other five were still being
evaluated, he told reporters.
"Three
of the patients had severe injuries and are still in the operating room right
now. And two of them are in critical condition, but they have stabilised,"
Rubino said.
The
other five that we had are still being evaluated, of whom one or two may
require further surgery, he added.
Dan
Stevens, a spokesman for Westmoreland County emergency management, told AFP
that the teenage victims are aged 14 to 17.
They
were attacked in "numerous classrooms and hallways" of the school,
Stevens added.
Police
said the victims were found in multiple locations because they were following
the correct drill to run as far away as possible in the event of an emergency.
Wednesday's
attack comes after a long and frequent line of US school shootings that have
inflamed a nationwide debate over gun control in the United States.
But
even the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown,
Connecticut, where 20 young children and six adults were shot dead, ultimately
failed to tighten gun ownership rules.
Seefeld
praised school staff, who worked in close coordination with police and who were
well versed in emergency procedure.
"It
is my opinion that today as unfortunate as it is... I think that it could have
been a lot worse if there was not immediate interaction that occurred," he
told reporters.
The
school has since been evacuated.
A
statement on the website of the Franklin Regional School District said a
"critical incident" had occurred.
"All
elementary schools are cancelled, the middle school and high school students
are secure," the statement said.
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