According to CNN reports, at least 20 students were injured and one person is in custody Wednesday morning after a stabbing incident at Franklin Regional Senior High School in Murrysville in the Pittsburgh area. The injured students range in age from 14 to 17; most suffered knife wounds from the two kitchen knives wielded by the attacker, and some suffered scrapes and cuts in the mayhem that ensued during the incident. A spokesperson at the local hospital said four of the students had “quite serious” and “life-threatening” injuries to their torso, abdomen and chest areas, though all are expected to survive the attack. One of the victims was a security guard posted at the school.
A doctor who treated six stabbing victims said most of them didn’t immediately realize how they were injured. “They just felt pain and noticed they were bleeding. Almost all of them said they didn’t see anyone coming at them,” Dr. Timothy VanFleet, chief of emergency medicine at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield. “It apparently was a crowded hallway and they were going about their business, and then just felt pain and started bleeding.”
The suspected attacker is a male sophomore at the school, wrote the Chicago Tribune from information from local media. The suspect, 16-year-old Alex Hribal, is currently being held without bail in a local juvenile detention center and has been charged with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. All local elementary schools were cancelled and the middle and high schools have been “secured,” reported the school district.
USA Today reported that a female student saved the life of a stabbed classmate by applying pressure until medics arrived.
Information is still developing in this story. Please pray for the victims, their families. the care workers and first responders—and the attacker who clearly is a troubled youth in need of real help.
