Ostroleka: Ten people were hospitalised after a 19-year-old student attacked students and teachers with a dangerous tool at a school in northern Poland on Wednesday, authorities said.
The attack took place shortly after 11 am local time at the Vocational School Complex No. 4 in Ostroleka, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northeast of Warsaw, police said.
Five students, two teachers, two bystanders and the attacker were in hospital, Ostroleka Mayor Pawel Niewiadomski said. None were thought to have life-threatening injuries.
Authorities identified the suspect only as Jakub Z., in line with Polish privacy laws.
He was arrested on a riverbank less than 1 kilometre (a half mile) from the school after fleeing the scene, according to police. He had self-harmed and was taken to a hospital, authorities said.
Police in the Mazovia province, which includes both Ostroleka and Warsaw, posted a photo on X showing a man they appeared to have apprehended lying face down in a wooded area.
Two hours after the attack, Niewiadomski wrote on social media that the “situation has been brought under control” but that the school would remain closed while authorities investigate the circumstances of the attack.
He said children and others affected would receive psychological support and that he had asked all schools in the region to ban any unknown people from entering their premises.
A suspicious backpack was also found at the school, and authorities were investigating its contents, a local firefighters' spokesman told Polsat television.
School attacks are not common in Poland. However, a stabbing at a Catholic convent in southeastern Poland last month left one person dead and four others wounded. Police detained a suspect.
(With inputs from AP via PTI & Reuters)
