A 12-year-old boy has been detained after six pupils – five of them girls – were stabbed at a school in Azambuja, Portugal.
The victims are aged between 12 and 14 – and one of them is in a serious condition after the terrifying attack, according to a source for Portuguese Civil Protection
The Portugal Resident has said that one victim may be a teacher. It is unclear if they were stabbed or simply require medical assistance.
Azambuja mayor Silvino Lúcio said the incident arose from an argument, after which the alleged attacker went home, and later returned.
Once inside the school, he reportedly put on a bulletproof vest, brought out the knife and started stabbing people indiscriminately.
Five ambulances raced to the scene at around 2.30pm, where the bullet-proof vest and knife were discovered inside the alleged attacker’s schoolbag.
“There was no target, no objective.” said the Azambuja mayor. “As the victims appeared, they were attacked”.
One ‘eye witness’ (the mother of a pupil not involved in the stabbing, and younger than the pupils involved) told SIC news of the ‘horror’ of the situation, with “lots of blood, children covered in blood”.
She repeated: “It was horrible”. The woman did not know what caused the incident, grabbing her child and leaving the school as fast as she could.
Silvino Lúcio said that none of the children are in a life-threatening situation, albeit they received stab wounds and injuries, to their legs mainly. At least one, he said, was stabbed in the stomach.
The child responsible for the attack was ‘restrained’ by a member of staff, the mayor added.