Four pupils injured in knife attack at western German school

Four pupils at a school in the western German city of Wuppertal were injured, at least two of them seriously, in a knife attack on Thursday, according to police and officials.

The suspected attacker, who is in custody, is believed to be a 17-year-old male pupil at the school, said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, which includes Wuppertal.

Two of the victims in the attack are being treated in intensive care for serious injuries, as is the suspected attacker, according to local prosecutors.

Multiple knives were used in the attack, prosecutors said. School staff managed to trigger an alarm at 9:55 am (0855 GMT), bringing a major police response to the school in central Wuppertal.

Reul said nothing is yet known about the motive. He said it is currently assumed that the suspect was a lone perpetrator, and initial reports suggested that the attacker's injuries were self-inflicted.

The police later said they assumed the suspect ran amok, according to a spokesman, suggesting the crime may have been a random, unprovoked episode.

The attack happened at the Wilhelm-Dörpfeld-Gymnasium, a high school focused on teaching classical languages like Latin and Greek which is located in the Elberfeld district of Wuppertal.

Wuppertal is located just east of Dusseldorf.

One student told dpa that a friend of his had seen two older pupils running down the stairs bleeding.

"I thought maybe they were fighting," he recalled.

But then they were told by announcement to go to their classrooms and lock the rooms.

"We then pushed the desks in front of the door and sat on the floor at the back," he said. "We were very scared."

Other students reported similar experiences.

"We had English lessons, then an announcement was made that several pupils had been injured and the paramedics should come to the first-aid room," another student at the school told dpa.

As they waited barricaded in their classroom, someone pushed the handle and scratched at the door, the second pupil said.

A large-scale police operation successfully evacuated the school and secured the area, according to police, who said that no shots were fired during the incident.

"The pupils are safe and are being looked after," state police said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

During the operation a police helicopter circled over the school, while numerous officers with sub-machine guns were among the large contingent of emergency response workers at the site.

Counsellors and religious pastoral care were also on site.

Authorities said a contact point had been set up for parents. Many pupils appeared visibly shaken by what had happened as they were picked up by their parents.