Machete-wielding student, 13, kills teacher

A Spanish boy armed with a crossbow and a machete killed a substitute teacher and wounded four people at his school in Barcelona yesterday, police said.

The unidentified 13-year-old was detained by police as a suspect after the attack that also saw two other teachers and two students injured. Authorities said he will not face criminal charges because he is under age 14.

The attack, which took place just after 9.30am, brought terror to the high school in a working-class neighborhood of Spain’s second-largest city. School attacks are extremely rare in Spain.

“We were just starting the class and suddenly we heard screams,” said student Gemma Jarque. “So we shut ourselves inside our classroom in order to be safe.”

A police spokeswoman said the boy had a crossbow and a machete but was unable to say which weapon caused the teacher’s death.

She said the investigation was being carried out under a secrecy order and she had no further details.

She spoke on condition of anonymity because police regulations prevent her from being identified by name.

The boy was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric examination, said Jose Miguel Company, a spokesman for the Barcelona prosecutor’s office.

“He was very disturbed and saying strange and incoherent things,” said Company, who added that the examination is aimed at determining whether the boy has psychiatric problems or whether he was faking them.

Authorities did not disclose details of how the attack played out, but Jarque said she and others hid in her classroom after hearing the screams, and left along with other students only after a fire alarm sounded.

“We saw the teacher lying on the floor in a pool of blood,” she said.

Another student, Paula Amayuelas, said she knew the suspect and that he “didn’t have problems but he was kind of a loner. Other students would pick on him.”

The two wounded students and one of the injured teachers were taken to hospitals for treatment while the other injured teacher did not need hospitalisation.

A police spokesman said it was too early to determine whether the attack was an attempt to copy the Columbine masscare, which took place 16 years ago to the day.