Harrisburg: Twenty-one students and an adult were injured when a teenager, armed with knives, attacked students and staff at a high school in the US state of Pennsylvania, officials said.
“A critical incident has occurred at the high school. All elementary schools are cancelled, the middle school and high school students are secure,” said the Westmoreland County school district in a statement posted on its web site.
A 16-year-old boy – identified by authorities as Alex Hribal – was arrested after the incident at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, 40 km from Pittsburgh. Police said he is the attacker and a student at the school, the spokesperson for the county’s Emergency Department, Dan Stevens, told reporters.
He added that the attack began shortly before the first class of the day, lasted only minutes and the attacker wielded two knives 20 and 25 centimeters long.
The suspect was later questioned by police and taken to a hospital for minor head injuries. Several of the injured were taken to medical centers by helicopter with eight of them being transported to the Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville with stab wounds.
US President Barack Obama sent a message of solidarity to the relatives and victims of the attack from Texas, where he is attending the funeral services for the victims of the shooting attack last week that left four people dead and 16 wounded on the Fort Hood military base.