20 stabbed at Pennsylvania high school

A male student armed with two knives went on a stabbing rampage inside the science wing of a Pennsylvania high school Wednesday morning, injuring at least 20 people, several who suffered life-threatening injuries, officials said.

At least two people were in surgery and a third was waiting to be operated on, a hospital official said.

“None of these are superficial wounds. These all have significant stab wounds,” said Chris Kaufmann, a trauma surgeon at Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville, Pa., which is about seven miles from the site of the stabbing at Franklin Regional Senior High School in Murrysville, Pa., east of Pittsburgh.

The assailant was in custody, emergency officials said.

Eight of the patients, including some of the most seriously injured, were taken to Forbes because it is close to the crime scene and has a trauma unit. Kaufmann said seven of the patients there were teenagers and one was an adult

All of them suffered stab wounds to the chest, abdomen, back or flank, he told a news conference.

“Patients who are stabbed in the abdomen and chest have, by definition, life-threatening injuries,” Kaufmann said. “I would say that half of them are life-threatening.”

Dan Stevens of Westmoreland County Emergency Management said the stabbing happened before classes began and occurred in several classrooms. Stevens, speaking to reporters outside the high school, said he had no information about the assailant.

Stevens also could not confirm the ages or names of the 20 who were injured.

“We have students everywhere from 14 to 17 years of age,” he said.

Classes were canceled and students were being reunited with parents. “This is very fluid,” said Stevens.

The school district posted a notice about the attack on its website, saying: “A critical incident has occurred at the high school.”

It said all elementary schools were canceled and that the middle and high school students were secure.

A security company employee who had visited the school the previous day to investigate ways of upgrading campus protection, said the attacker carried two knives.

The employee, Jeff Dahlke, spoke to the Pittsburgh CBS affiliate about three hours after the assailant began stabbing people in the science wing.

Dahlke said security guards were alerted to the stabbing by a school alarm and that at least two responded.

“They were trying to get the weapons away from him,” said Dahlke. He said one security guard tackled the assailant to keep him from wrestling with another guard, who was trying to disarm him.

One of the guards was injured in the melee, but Dahlke said he did not believe the wounds were serious.

According to Dahlke, there are no metal detectors at the school but security officials had visited the campus Tuesday to see about possibly installing them, or finding other ways to make the campus more secure.

“We always look to increase security and help them in any way we can,” he said, adding that Franklin Regional is a “good school” with no history of problems. The school’s front doors have buzzers, and there are security guards on duty daily, but he said early morning is a hard time to cover every inch of the campus.

“It’s difficult because in the morning you have to open up all the doors to let the students in,” he said.

Murrysville is about 20 miles east of Pittsburgh.