13-year-old schoolboy stabs teacher dead and wounds two more in Slovakia school attack

A 13-year-old schoolboy stabbed a 61-year-old female teacher to death and seriously wounded another teacher and a schoolgirl in an attack at an elementary school in northwestern Slovakia on Tuesday, authorities said.

The attack happened at about 0700 GMT in the village of Staskov, near the Czech border, shortly after the first class of the day, AFP reported. A 44-year-old female teacher was stabbed in the chest and hospitalised; Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok later told reporters her life was not in danger. The wounded schoolgirl was in a “serious, critical condition”, Health Minister Kamil Sasko said.

Police detained the boy and said he is being investigated by the Office for Combating Organised Crime for “premeditated murder”. A motive was not immediately known. Sutaj Estok praised the head teacher, saying “she followed every single procedure outlined in the available manuals to the letter and prevented the tragedy from becoming even worse”. Police said the situation in the village of about 2,750 people was “under control”.

Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed “sincere condolences”, saying he was following the incident with great concern. President Peter Pellegrini said he was “shocked that this is yet another case in which a student attacked teachers and a classmate”, blaming aggression and intolerance spread by social media and some politicians.

Last year, an 18-year-old student fatally stabbed a deputy principal and another student at a high school in northern Slovakia; in 2020, a former student killed a deputy principal in Vrutky; and in 2022 a student injured a pupil in Novaky.

Sources

• Knife-wielding schoolboy kills teacher, injures two in Slovakia — Al Jazeera
• Slovak school stabbing kills teacher, injures two — The Straits Times (AFP)