A knife-wielding student killed one teacher and injured another teacher and a pupil in northwestern Slovakia on Tuesday.
The incident took place at approximately 0700 GMT in the village of Staskov, near the Czech border.
Police stated that a 13-year-old student had been detained in connection with the attack and was being investigated for “premeditated murder.”
“This morning, after the first class, a school pupil launched a knife attack,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told reporters.
A 61-year-old woman succumbed to her injuries, while a 44-year-old woman “with a stab wound to the chest” and a girl were taken to hospital, emergency service spokeswoman Petra Klimesova told AFP.
Health Minister Kamil Sasko told reporters that the schoolgirl was “in a serious, critical condition” following the attack.
Sutaj Estok later stated that the injured teacher’s life was not in danger.
According to police, the situation in the village was “under control.”
When questioned by journalists, Education Minister Tomas Drucker would not say whether the attack stemmed from bullying.
Nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico offered his “sincere condolences” and said he was monitoring “the tragic incident in the village of Staskov with great concern.”
“Personally, I am deeply saddened by this,” he said in a statement.
President Peter Pellegrini said he was “shocked that this is yet another case in which a student attacked teachers and a classmate.”
“Aggression and an atmosphere of intolerance—spread primarily by social media and, unfortunately, by some politicians as well—are literally poisoning the public sphere and influencing the behavior of our children in schools,” he said.
He urged “all citizens to act in a way that calms the atmosphere, rather than further radicalizing it.”
