Attacker wounds 9 students at German school

[September 17, 2009]  ANSBACH, Germany (AP) -- An 18-year-old student armed with an ax and Molotov cocktails attacked his high school in southern Germany on Thursday, wounding nine pupils, police said.

The teenager entered the Carolinum High School in the Bavarian town of Ansbach where he threw two of the explosive devices, but they caused no major fires, said Ansbach Fire Chief Horst Sellter. Police could not confirm media reports that the attacker had lobbed Molotov cocktails into a classroom.

Udo Dreher, head of police at the scene, said they responded to a 8:35 a.m. (0645 GMT) call that an attacker had set off two Molotov cocktails at the high school. Upon arriving at the scene, police used their weapons to arrest the attacker, Dreher said. He refused to elaborate, but some media carried reports of shots being fired.

All 700 students at the school were safely evacuated said Nuremberg police spokeswoman Elke Schoenwald.

The alleged attacker, who was arrested, also was injured, said Schoenwald.

Prosecutor Gudrun Lehnberger said the 18-year-old male student at the school is being held on suspicion of attempted murder. Earlier reports had said the attacker was 19.

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.

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.

[Associated Press; By BRIGITTE CASPARY]

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