A 16-year-old student holding two knives went on a stabbing rampage in the hallways of a Pittsburgh-area high school early yesterday, injuring 20 people, at least nine of them seriously, officials said.
The suspected attacker, who was not identified, was in police custody, Dan Stevens, deputy emergency management co-ordinator for the Westmoreland County, told reporters.
The attacks began around 7:13a.m. EDT (1113 GMT)in several classrooms and hallways as classes were starting at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, 20 miles (32 km) east of Pittsburgh, officials said.
The school was evacuated quickly after a student or staff member pulled the fire alarm, said Murrysville police chief, Tom Seefeld.
"What we teach is, the first thing you want the students to do is run," Seefeld said. "The fire alarm being pulled probably assisted with evacuating the school."
Seven students between the ages of 15 and 17 and one 60-year-old adult were admitted to Forbes Regional Hospital, in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, with stab wounds.
Three were in surgery and all eight were listed in critical condition, hospital spokesman Jesse Miller said in a telephone interview.
All three undergoing surgery had been stabbed in the chest and abdomen, said Chris Kauffman, director of trauma at Forbes Regional Hospital.
"Patients who are stabbed in the abdomen and chest by definition have life-threatening injuries," Mr Kauffman said.
A ninth patient who had arrived at the hospital was air-lifted to another facility, Mr Miller said.
A 15-year-old girl who was transported to Allegheny General was discharged after being treated for "superficial" stab wounds, a spokeswoman said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article