German student attacks 10 others with axe

ANSBACH – A 19-year-old student armed with an axe attacked his high school in southern Germany yesterday, wounding nine pupils, police said.

The alleged attacker, who was arrested, was also injured at Carolinum High School in the Bavarian town of Ansbach, said Nuremberg police spokeswoman Elke Schoenwald. She said that in addition to the axe, the student was carrying flammable devices.All the 700 students at the school were brought to safety, she said.Nuremberg police spokesman Peter Grimm told N24 television that all the wounded students appeared to all be eighth-graders and that one of them, a girl, was seriously injured.’There are no indications that any other attackers are in the building,’ he said.Police could not confirm media reports that the attacker had lobbed Molotov cocktails into a classroom or that shots had been fired.According to its Web site, Carolinum was founded in 1528, making it the second-oldest public high school in Bavaria. Today, the school offers curriculum based on the humanities and music for grades five through 13.The incident was the second attack on a school in Germany this year.In March, 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer fatally shot 12 people at his former school in the southwestern town of Winnenden. He fled the building and killed three more people before turning the gun on himself.That was the nation’s second-worst school shooting after a 2002 shooting spree in Erfurt that left 17 dead, including the gunman.After Kretschmer’s attack in Winnenden, Germany moved to tighten checks on weapon owners.- Nampa-AP