Teacher attacked with knife at school in Germany’s Essen

A suspect has been detained after a teacher was attacked with a knife at a vocational college in western Germany on Friday.

The man was shot and injured during his arrest near the main railway station in the city of Essen, police told dpa.

Security sources said the perpetrator – believed to be a 17-year-old pupil from Kosovo who attends the school – was shot after running at police officers with a knife and is being treated in hospital.

He is believed to have attacked the woman on Friday morning before fleeing.

The teacher is also receiving treatment in hospital. According to a spokesman for the emergency services, her life is not in danger.

No others were injured in the incident, with investigators assuming that the teacher was deliberately targeted.

Police were on site with a large number of officers and cordoned off the building.

Reporters from dpa subsequently observed the deployment of a special task force near the central railway station in Essen, where the man was detained.

A city spokesman said that the school is a municipal vocational college with around 1,780 students.

According to its website, the institution offers courses in the vocational fields of nutrition and home economics as well as social and health care.

Essen is a major city in the heavily populated Ruhr area, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.