Attacker wounds 9 students at German school

[samanthajane13]

By BRIGITTE CASPARY, Associated Press Writer Brigitte Caspary, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 6 mins ago

ANSBACH, Germany – An 18-year-old student armed with an ax and knives lobbed Molotov cocktails at his high school in southern Germany on Thursday, wounding nine pupils before he was shot and arrested by police.

The teenager entered the Carolinum High School in the Bavarian town of Ansbach on Thursday morning and threw one Molotov cocktail before police were alerted and arrived at the scene, said Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann.

Police smelled smoke when they arrived at the school, Hermann said. They were confronted by the ax-wielding teen, who had thrown a second Molotov cocktail that apparently failed to detonate.

"Since the attacker threatened to use his weapons against the police, the officers opened fire," Hermann said, adding that the attacker, who was not identified, was wounded and in critical condition.

Udo Dreher, the chief police officer at the scene, said the18 year old was shot five times, but was not in life threatening condition.

Two teenage girls were seriously injured by the attacker — one suffering burns and the other head injuries, said Dreher. It was not immediately clear whether the second girl was attacked with the ax or a knife. Authorities did not say how the other seven wounded students had been attacked.

Dreher said the assailant started his rampage armed with three Molotov cocktails, the ax and two knives. He was arrested 11 minutes after police were called to the scene.

Authorities said the teen had no police record and it was not immediately clear what his motive might have been. Officials said there was no indication that he had said anything during the attack.

Fire service official Horst Settler said no major fires broke out in the school and its roughly 700 students were evacuated and taken to a nearby building.

Prosecutor Gudrun Lehnberger said the 18-year-old male student at the school was being held on suspicion of attempted murder. Lehnberger said the initial investigation would concentrate on determining a motive for the attack, which came only three days after the new school year started in Bavaria.

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 gun owners.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090917/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_school_attack

[samanthajane13]

Prosecutor: 'Apocalypse' planned by German student
By BRIGITTE CASPARY, Associated Press Writer Brigitte Caspary, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 6 mins ago

ANSBACH, Germany – An 18-year-old who stormed his school armed with an ax, knives and Molotov cocktails in an attack that injured nine people had marked the date in his calendar with the words "apocalypse today," German prosecutors said Friday.

A 15-year-old girl who was struck in the head with an ax during Thursday's attack underwent a successful seven-hour operation, while another 15-year-old girl who suffered second-degree burns and smoke inhalation remained in intensive care, the Nuremberg hospital treating them announced. Both were out of immediate danger.

Ansbach State Prosecutor Juergen Krach said the attacker also remained hospitalized after he was shot by police during his arrest. Doctors plan to bring him out of a medically induced coma on Friday.

Krach said a search of the student's home turned up the calendar on which he had marked Sept. 17, and a handwritten will.

State Prosecutor Gudrun Lehnberger said the will was dated Sept. 11. She added that the search turned up no threats against specific students or people. The attacker's motive remains unclear.

"I can confirm that the perpetrator was undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment," Lehnberger said. The teenager's name has not been released because of German privacy laws. Krach said police have questioned the student's parents.

As well as the two with serious injuries, a teacher and six pupils suffered burns after the attacker lit Molotov cocktails and threw them into an 11th-grade classroom just after classes started Thursday morning.

Police responding to a student's emergency call shot the attacker in a hallway.

Some 700 students fled the Carolinum high school, a nearly 500-year-old institution on the cobbled streets of Ansbach, Bavaria.

Police said it is not clear if the attacker, who had no police record, purposely selected his victims.

The attacker was shot five times in the upper body during his arrest, 11 minutes after police responded to a call from a student who smelled smoke and activated the fire alarm. Many pupils thought it was a routine fire drill and only learned later what had happened.

Frank Stark, a rector at the school, told reporters Friday that the attacker had signed up for a class trip to Rome with 65 other students that was scheduled to begin the day of the attack.

"They would normally have left yesterday and stayed in Rome for a week," Stark said.

Stark said roughly 150 of the school's 700 students and their parents were gathered in the school's gym Friday for meetings with psychologists and others. The school was closed until next week.

Krach said prosecutors do not expect to question the teen immediately when he is brought out of the coma, but they will execute their warrant on charges of attempted murder.

It was the latest in a series of violent attacks on schools in Germany in the past decade and the second 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.

Teacher and police union leaders said the attacks showed that more counselors and better monitoring systems are needed to prevent such incidents.

"At least one social worker and one psychologist belong in every school in Germany," Rainer Wendt, leader of a major German police union, told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090918/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_school_attack

[samanthajane13]

German teen who attacked school awakes from coma
By BRIGITTE CASPARY, Associated Press Writer Brigitte Caspary, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 50 mins ago

ANSBACH, Germany – A German teenager who wounded nine students and a teacher in a terrifying ax and arson attack on his school was motivated by a "hatred for humanity" and had been planning the rampage since April, officials said Monday.

The new details came as the 18-year-old, who had been shot three times by police, was awakened Monday from a medically induced coma. Prosecutor Gudrun Lehnberger said the suspect was responsive but has not yet been questioned about Thursday's attack.

However, the roughly 80 pages of evidence recovered from the teenager's laptop included extensive information on his plans, much of it addressed to a female whose name was not released, said Juergen Krach, another prosecutor. Krach said investigators believe the addressee may be fictional, and the material was apparently not sent to anyone.

The teenager, who has not been named, wrote that his "goal was to kill as many students and teachers as possible and burn down the school," Lehnberger told reporters at a news conference.

"As a motive, he named his hatred for humanity and, above all, school," she said.

The assailant wrote that he was treated unfairly in and out of school and feared that he wouldn't meet the requirements for graduation Lehnberger said. She added that he had expressed a wish to die himself in the attack — "he didn't want to live any more."

Krach said the student wrote that his parents were not responsible for his planned actions, which he described in documents dating back to April, and also lamented that he wanted but apparently did not have a steady girlfriend.

Already in April, he used the word "Amok," or rampage, Krach said. In May, he turned his attention to weapons. In June, he chose the day for the attack and his clothing, and settled on the school's third story.

"What was decisive for him was there was a particularly large number of classrooms there," Krach said.

The assailant chose a T-shirt for the day with the words "Made in School" printed on it.

The documents — which had been deleted, but were retrieved by computer specialists — showed that he intended to draw students out of classrooms with burning objects and then attack them with handheld weapons such as an ax, officials said.

Last Thursday, he did just that. He climbed to the third story of the school in Ansbach, Bavaria, shortly after classes started, tossed Molotov cocktails into a classroom and then attacked students with an ax and knives as they fled.

Over 700 students fled the school in southern Germany, some leaving by an emergency staircase.

Police shot the assailant three times in the upper body, officials said Monday — correcting a previous statement that he was shot five times.

Two girls who suffered the most serious injuries were both out of critical condition, officials said. One girl suffered a blow to the head with an ax and the other had serious burns.

The high school reopened for classes on Monday after holding counseling sessions on Friday.

"We slowly want to return to normal," principal Franz Stark said.

The Ansbach attack was the second attack on a school in Germany this year, and took place just three days into Bavaria's new school 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. A 2002 shooting spree in Erfurt left 17 dead, including the gunman.

Krach, the state prosecutor, said the teenager who carried out the Ansbach attack mentioned Erfurt and may have been inspired by that spree.

After Kretschmer's attack in Winnenden, Germany moved to tighten checks on gun owners.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_school_attack