An 18-year-old student fatally stabbed a teacher and a fellow student at a secondary school in northeastern Slovakia on Thursday, leaving another student seriously injured, authorities said.
The attack occurred in the town of Spišská Stará Ves, near the Polish border, around 280 kilometers (175 miles) northeast of Bratislava. Emergency services were alerted at 11:49 GMT, and police arrived at the scene within three minutes.
Danka Čapáková, a spokesperson for Slovakia’s emergency service, confirmed the victims were an 18-year-old student and a 51-year-old deputy headmistress. Another 18-year-old student remains hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
The attacker, identified only as “S.S.,” fled the scene but was apprehended in a forest outside the town by 12:56 GMT. Police released an image of the suspect, described as having cropped blond hair.
Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok revealed that the suspect had “excellent academic results” but declined to comment on a possible motive. Reports from local media suggest the student had previously been expelled from another school in Kežmarok for threatening classmates.
In addition to the fatalities, several individuals sustained minor injuries, and a 51-year-old man and a 62-year-old woman were treated for acute stress reactions. The attack occurred during lessons, with the school full of students and staff.
Slovak President Peter Pellegrini expressed his condolences, calling the incident a “real tragedy” and emphasizing that “no problem in the world can be solved with a knife or another weapon.”
The Student Council of Secondary Schools condemned the violence, stating, “Hatred and violence have no place in our society, let alone schools where young people should feel safe.”
This is not the first school stabbing incident in Slovakia. In 2020, a teacher was killed, and several others injured in a similar attack at an elementary school in central Slovakia. Across Europe, recent years have seen a rise in school violence, including attacks in Croatia and Serbia, sparking renewed calls for enhanced school security and violence prevention measures.
