Slovak school stabbing kills teacher, injures two

A knife-wielding schoolboy killed a teacher and wounded another and a pupil in an attack in northwestern Slovakia on Tuesday, authorities said.

The attack occurred at around 7am GMT in the village of Staskov close to the Czech border.

13-year-old detained for deadly attack

A 13-year-old schoolboy was detained over the attack, police said, adding he was being investigated for murder.

“This morning, after the first class, a school pupil launched a knife attack,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told reporters.

A 61-year-old woman died of her injuries, while a 44-year-old “with a stab wound to the chest” and a girl were hospitalised, emergency service spokeswoman Petra Klimesova told AFP.

The schoolgirl was “in a serious, critical condition, in a state of heavy neuralgic shock” after the attack, Health Minister Kamil Sasko told reporters.

Sutaj Estok said later the injured teacher’s life was not in danger.

Police said the situation in the village was “under control”.

Asked by journalists, Education Minister Tomas Drucker declined to say whether the attack was due to bullying.

‘Tragic incident’

Nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed his “sincere condolences” and said he was following “the tragic incident in the village of Staskov with great concern”.

“Personally, I am deeply saddened by this,” he said in a statement.

President Peter Pellegrini said he was “shocked that this is yet another case in which a student attacked teachers and a classmate”.

“Aggression and an atmosphere of intolerance — spread primarily by social media and, unfortunately, by some politicians as well — are literally poisoning the public sphere and influencing the behaviour of our children in schools,” he said.

He urged “all citizens to act in a way that calms the atmosphere, rather than further radicalising it”.

In January last year, an 18-year-old killed a fellow pupil and a teacher in a knife attack and wounded another pupil at a secondary school in the town of Spisska Stara Ves in northeastern Slovakia.

In 2020, a teacher was stabbed to death and several others wounded at an elementary school in central Slovakia, the first violent attack at a school in the central European EU and NATO member of 5.4 million people.