ZAGREB, Croatia: A seven-year-old pupil was killed and several others injured in a stabbing attack at a school in the Croatian capital Zagreb on Friday (Dec 20), with a 19-year-old man arrested as a suspect, authorities said.
“A total of six people were injured of whom unfortunately one child has died on the spot after intensive efforts to revive them,” Health Minister Irena Hrstic told reporters, revising downwards an earlier larger toll cited by officials.
“The deceased child is seven years old,” she added.
Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said the suspect was a 19-year-old man. Police said he attacked a teacher and schoolchildren at the primary school.
All of the injured were currently being treated at hospitals and were in stable condition, according to the minister.
The alleged attacker was also injured during the incident, said Hrstic.
Police said the suspect had been taken into custody, in an earlier statement.
“We are shocked, as is the entire Croatian public, with the horrible tragedy at the primary school,” Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at the start of a cabinet meeting.
Zagreb mayor Tomislav Tomasevic, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic and Education Minister Radovan Fuchs rushed to the school following the attack.
Around midday, about a dozen police cars with their lights on were parked in front of the school, according to an AFP reporter.
The area was sealed off and forensic experts dressed in white overalls were collecting evidence from the schoolyard.
Fatal attacks on the public are rare in Croatia.
In July, a gunman killed six people at a nursing home in eastern Croatia’s Daruvar in an attack that horrified the Balkan country.
Last year neighbouring Serbia was rocked by back-to-back mass shootings, including a massacre at a school in the capital Belgrade in which 10 people were killed.