Panic: Gunman shoots crossbow at school

Created: 05/19/2022Updated: 05/19/2022, 18:35

Forensics teams are standing in front of the school.

© Sina Schuldt/dpa

Amok alarm during the Abitur examinations: A 21-year-old breaks into a Bremerhaven high school with a gun and critically injures an employee.

The shock is deep.

Bremerhaven - At around 1.30 p.m. the horror for the around 140 students and teachers in the upper school of the Bremerhaven Lloyd-Gymnasium is finally over.

After about four hours of staying in locked classrooms, they can finally leave school on Thursday afternoon.

Some laugh, others have teary-eyed eyes.

"I was terrified until just now," says a 16-year-old.

Only now, free again, does he feel relief.

It was around 9.15 a.m. when a 21-year-old man, according to the police, entered the school building in the Bremerhaven-Lehe district with a crossbow and critically injured an employee.

The woman was taken to the hospital, a police spokeswoman said.

The man was arrested a short time later near the scene of the crime.

A pistol and two knives were also found on him.

No statements are possible on the motive, said senior public prosecutor Oliver Constien later.

The relationship between the young man and the school and the victim has yet to be determined.

Investigators assumed it was a single perpetrator.

Prosecutors are investigating attempted murder.

The suspect was to be brought before the magistrate on Thursday evening.

After the fact, the school's contingency plan was triggered.

The students and teachers locked themselves in the classrooms, where they stayed until the police gave the all-clear.

On Thursday there were high school exams - that's why the school was relatively empty, said Bremerhaven's head of school, Michael Frost.

Normally more than 500 students go to the upper level of the Lloyd-Gymnasium.

The 16-year-old student, who talks about his experiences, is in 10th grade.

He had just had an art class when the code for a shooting spree at the school was repeated several times over the loudspeakers.

"It was a shock to me." The teacher locked the door.

First she started crying, then some classmates.

Everyone would lie down on the floor.

"I sat under the table for two hours," says the student.

Meanwhile, police special forces searched the building to make sure there was no longer any danger.

The city council of Bremerhaven set up a hotline for parents of the students.

The school grounds were cordoned off over a large area after the crime.

In addition to police, fire and rescue services, pastors and school psychologists were on site.

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Numerous parents were waiting for their children in a small park in front of the school.

Hagen Rösler found out about the crime from a colleague.

"I immediately panicked," he said.

When he saw the police car, his knees went weak.

Eventually he was able to reach his son by phone.

"He told me they were safe.

He sounded calm and relaxed," said the father.

"This is the worst possible event that can happen," said debt officer Frost.

"Something like this is possible everywhere, that's confirmed today." But the school was very well prepared for such a case.

"If there's any good news today, it's this," Frost said.

The students are now free to come to school on Friday.

"There will be no lessons.

But we offer opportunities to talk - also for the parents. "dpa