Zee Media Bureau
Murrysville, Pennsylvania: In another shocking incident in a US high school, a teenager went on a stabbing spree injuring 21 students and one security guard, said reports.
The incident happened in the early morning on Wednesday just before the first classes were to begin in Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville near Pittsburgh.
The stabber, armed with a pair of kitchen knives went on stabbing and slashing people in a crowded hallway so suddenly that the victims didn`t even know what had just happened to them.
According to a CNN report, Dr. Timothy VanFleet, chief of emergency medicine at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said that the students who were attacked “just felt pain and realised they were bleeding”.
According to reports, several of the victims were significantly wounded and suffered damage to their internal organs and needed surgery.
The stabber went on attacking the students until he was stopped by the school`s assistant principal.
Someone had rung the firing alarm after witnessing the incident.
The stabber teen has been identified as a 16 year old Alex Hribal, who was charged as an adult.
Four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a weapon in school premises have been levelled against the accused teen.
Police have not determined a motive, but investigators are looking into reports of a threatening phone call between the suspect and another student the night before.
The accused`s lawyer, Pat Tomassey has described him as a “nice young man” who was not a loner and was well with other kids.
“He`s a young kid. He`s 16, looks like he`s 12. I mean, he`s a very young kid and he`s never been in trouble so this is all new to him," said the accused`s lawyer.
He also suggested that Hribal “be examined by a psychiatrist and determined where he is mentally."
However, according to one of the eyewitnesses, a girl named Mia Meixner described him as a `shy` student who did not talk to many people.
According to the CNN, Mia described the expression on the stabber`s face as “crazy” as he went about slashing students.
"He was very quiet. He just was kind of doing it... And he had this, like, look on his face that he was just crazy and he was just running around just stabbing whoever was in his way," the CNN quoted her as saying.
Giving more details about him, Mia said, "He kept to himself a lot.. He didn`t have that many friends that I know of, but I also don`t know of him getting bullied that much.”
Meanwhile, the school which is till a crime scene according to the investigators, remained under police guard and will remain closed for several days, said Gennaro Piraino, superintendent of the Franklin Regional school district.
Also, a bunch of FBI agents could be seen moving in and out of the accused`s house after the attack. They had reportedly confiscated Hribal`s computer and other possible evidence.
According to a BBC report, there was nothing clear yet on the motive behind the attack but police were looking into a suspected threatening phone call between the accused and another student.
