Student, 18, attacks schoolmates with axe

AN 18-YEAR-OLD armed with an axe, knives and Molotov cocktails attacked his high school in southern Germany yesterday, injuring eight pupils and a teacher before police shot and arrested him, authorities said.

As the mayhem erupted on the third floor, roughly 700 other students fled the building, including some who barricaded a classroom door before running down an emergency staircase. Many took shelter in a nearby office building.

The teenager entered the four-story school in Ansbach at 8.30am (6.30am Irish time), shortly after classes started, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said.