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A 7-year-old girl was killed and at least five other students and a teacher were injured in a knife attack at a school in the Croatian capital Zagreb on Friday, police said. The local hospital reported that the injured teacher received life-threatening injuries, Reuters reports.
Officials said the attack took place at 9:50 a.m. local time at Pretzka Elementary School in the district of the same name. They called the attacker a “young man” and reported that he was detained.
The Croatian Ministry of the Interior reported that the attacker was 19 years old. Local media reported that the attacker was a former student at the school and showed video footage of children fleeing the school building and a medical helicopter landing in the school yard.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said he was “shocked” by the attack and that authorities were still working to determine exactly what happened. He said that several children were taken to different hospitals in Zagreb.
State television reported that the attacker went straight into the first classroom he found after entering the school, where he attacked the students and their teacher.
Attacks on schools are rare in Croatia. Last May, a teenager in neighboring Serbia opened fire at a school in the capital, Belgrade. nine classmates and a school guard were killed.