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20 injured in school stabbing spree

Published:Thursday | April 10, 2014 | 12:00 AM
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Students and a guardian walk to their car from Franklin Regional Middle School after more than a dozen students were stabbed by a knife-wielding suspect at nearby Franklin Regional High School yesterday.
Emergency responders gather in the parking lot of the high school on the campus of the Franklin Regional School District, where several people were stabbed at Franklin Regional High School yesterday. - AP
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PENNSYLVANIA (AP):

A student armed with a knife went on a stabbing and slashing spree at a high school near Pittsburgh yesterday morning, leaving as many as 20 people injured, including four students who suffered serious wounds, authorities said.

The suspect, a male student, was taken into custody and questioned by police. All of the victims were expected to survive, doctors said.

Not all of the 20 injured at Franklin Regional High School were cut by the knife, though most were, Westmoreland County emergency management spokesman Dan Stevens said. Some suffered scrapes and cuts in the ensuing mayhem that broke out at about 7:15 a.m. at the school in Murrysville, about 15 miles (25 kilometres) east of Pittsburgh.

One victim was an adult, authorities said, but none of the names of the victims was being released.

Dr Chris Kaufman, the trauma director at Forbes Regional Medical Center, the closest hospital, said two victims were in surgery and one was awaiting surgery. All three were all stabbed in the torso, abdomen, chest or back, which he called "significant injuries".

Seven teens and one adult were listed in serious condition at Forbes Hospital, West Penn Allegheny Health System spokeswoman Jennifer Davis said. They ranged in age from 15 to 60, and some were in surgery, she said. A ninth victim, a 15-year-old girl, was in good condition at another hospital, Davis said.

Twelve of the victims were sent to four hospitals, a spokeswoman said. She said hospital officials were still gathering information on their conditions and identities, including the patients' ages.

The suspect was being questioned by county detectives and police. Stevens said the suspect used a knife, though he didn't say what kind, and said it wasn't immediately clear why the student attacked the others.

One student told WTAE he saw "students holding their stomachs, bleeding". That student wasn't sure how the assailant was stopped, but said at some point, a fire alarm was activated and said, "As soon as we heard the fire alarm was pulled, we went outside."