Up to 20 people stabbed at Pennsylvania high school

A teenager armed with two knives has gone on a rampage at a high school in the US state of Pennsylvania, injuring 19 students and a security guard.

The 16-year-old student was taken into custody at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, a suburb of Pittsburgh, police said.

The wounded, some with serious stab wounds to the torso, were as young as 14. Several were in surgery in hospital.

All are expected to survive.

Eight patients were transported to nearby Forbes Regional Hospital. Two of those patients were in critical condition. Another 12 were treated at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, with two in critical condition and another two in serious condition.

Morris Hundley was called to collect his daughter, after receiving a frantic phone call from her

The school will be closed for the next several days as investigators process the crime scene, Gennaro Piraino, superintendent of the Franklin Regional school district, said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured and all of those affected by this awful tragedy," he said. "I pray and we pray every day that this doesn't happen."

The initial report of the attack came before 08:00 local time (12:00 GMT) on Wednesday morning.

"A critical incident has occurred at the high school," school officials wrote in a bulletin. "All elementary schools are cancelled, the middle school and high school students are secure."

Murrysville Police Chief Thomas Seefeld said someone, possibly a student, pulled a fire alarm after seeing the first stabbings.

The panicked students poured out of the school building, some suffering injuries in the chaos, as police descended in search of the suspected attacker.

Among the injured was a security guard, Mr Seefeld said.

Police have not determined a motive, but investigators are looking into reports of a threatening phone call between the suspect and another student the night before.

Officials have credited an assistant principal at the school with subduing the suspect.

In an interview outside the school, Morris Hundley said his "frantic" 14-year-old daughter Morriah called him to say a friend of hers had been stabbed at the school.

"She needed me or my wife to come get her," he said. "She was just frantic, I never heard her talk like that."

Source-BBC News