One dead, three hurt in school knife attack in northern Mexico
Two teenage brothers armed with machetes and rudimentary explosives killed a vice principal and injured three others in an attack on a school in Torreon, northern Mexico, local authorities have said.
A vice principal has been killed and three other people injured in an attack at a secondary school in the northern Mexican city of Torreon, in a rare case of school violence in the country.
Two 18-year-old brothers, both former students of Secondary School No. 13 in the La Union area of the city, were detained after the attack on Thursday, State Prosecutor Federico Fernandez said.
Local media reported that the pair entered the school armed with machetes and rudimentary explosive devices. A neighbourhood resident told local media that neighbours entered the school after hearing detonations and held the two until authorities arrived.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that two people, who are the probable perpetrators, attacked administrative staff. A woman, the school’s vice principal, lost her life,” Fernandez told reporters.
Fernandez described it as a “brutal attack” and said the preliminary motive the suspects had indicated was “a personal vendetta against the school”.
At least one of the three injured was in critical condition, Fernandez said. Mexico’s federal Security Cabinet said all three were receiving medical attention.
Attacks on schools are unusual in Mexico, where most violence is tied to organised crime. The most recent deadly school attack was in March this year, when two teachers at a private school in the western state of Michoacan were shot dead, allegedly by a 15-year-old student, according to Agence France-Presse.
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