During an act of violence at a high school in Wuppertal, a 17-year-old attacker allegedly injured several classmates with a knife. According to North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul, the attack on several students was allegedly carried out with a knife. The CDU politician announced this on Thursday in the Interior Committee of the Düsseldorf state parliament. The suspected perpetrator is a 17-year-old student. The crime happened in the middle of school operations on Thursday.
The Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office said the alarm had been triggered. The investigators assume that the suspect committed an amok, a police spokesman said on Thursday evening.
Police said a total of four students were injured by a suspected attacker. At least two students were seriously injured, said Reul in the Interior Committee of the Düsseldorf state parliament. A total of three students are injured in intensive care units. The 17-year-old alleged attacker was among them, according to the public prosecutor’s office. The suspect was temporarily arrested and was in custody. Nothing is yet known about his motive. It is currently assumed that the perpetrator was an individual. The police and fire brigade were on site with strong forces.
As the police announced, it was the Wilhelm-Dörpfeld-Gymnasium in the Elberfeld district. The operation began at 9:52 a.m. The police were informed of an emergency call from the school office, said Reul. A contact point has been set up for parents. Police said there was no shooting during the incident. There is still no further information about the perpetrator. Nothing is yet known about the perpetrator’s motive. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the suspect was critically injured.
According to media reports, students had barricaded themselves in the classrooms. A special operations command (SEK) is on site.
According to a DPA reporter, the police led students out of the school building in groups. The site was cordoned off in the morning and a police helicopter was circling in the air. Among the numerous emergency services there were also officers with submachine guns. According to the DPA reporter’s observation, pastors were also on site.
The school was searched after the crime, said the police spokesman. The evacuation was therefore orderly. “The students are safe and are being looked after,” the officials wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter). The police initially did not provide any further information about the crime or the background to it.
A student told the German Press Agency that a friend of his saw two older students running down the stairs bleeding. “I thought: Maybe they got into a fight,” he recalled. But then an announcement was made asking them to go into the classrooms and lock the rooms. “We then pushed the tables in front of the door and sat on the floor at the back,” he said. “We were very scared.”
Other students reported similar things. “We had English class, then an announcement came that several students had been injured and that the paramedics should come to the medical room,” said one student. As they waited barricaded in their classroom, someone pushed the handle and scratched on the door.
Note: This article is continually updated.
