Knife attack at Slovak school leaves 2 dead, 1 wounded

A knife-wielding 18-year-old student killed two people and severely injured another Thursday at a secondary school in northeastern Slovakia, authorities said.

The suspect was quickly apprehended following the attack at a grammar school in Spisska Stara Ves, a town near the Polish border about 175 miles northeast of Bratislava, the capital.

The suspect attacked a classroom teacher and classmates, according to Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok, who confirmed the attack on Facebook. The minister said he was traveling to the scene.

“The 18-year-old student suspected of having committed a serious crime … was detained very shortly after the incident,” police said in a statement on their Facebook page.

The attack marks one of the most serious incidents of school violence in Slovakia’s recent history. Spisska Stara Ves, typically a quiet border town, now finds itself at the center of a national tragedy.

Minister Estok expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, condemning what he described as “the attack by a student who stabbed a female teacher and his fellow students at the grammar school.”

Authorities have not yet released information about potential motives or the identities of the victims.