SYDNEY (AFP) — Five teenage boys armed with machetes and baseball bats invaded a Sydney high school Monday, smashing classrooms and injuring 18 students and a teacher, police said.
Merrylands High School in Sydney's west went into "lockdown" with pupils barricaded in their classrooms as the intruders assaulted students and shattered windows before police arrived and arrested them.
One girl was admitted to hospital with cuts to her face from flying glass and a teacher was taken to hospital with bruising to the back of his head after trying to restrain one of the attackers, an ambulance service spokesman said.
"We've assessed 18 school-aged children ... all having minor injuries, some lacerations, some bruising and they're obviously quite anxious about what has happened," the spokesman said.
Some students hid under tables and in cupboards while their teachers barricaded the doors as the youths rampaged through the school.
"They were carrying baseball bats and two had machetes. I thought I was going to die," said Grade 12 student Emma McQuillan.
"Teachers just told us to get down. Students were just crying and screaming," she told the Daily Telegraph.
Anxious parents gathered outside the school as news of the attack spread, later escorting their children home as they were allowed out.
Police were still trying to establish the motive for the attack in the blue-collar neighbourhood, as an education department spokesman said the five boys were not students at the school.
"The information to us is they were coming here ... seeking someone," Detective Inspector Jim Stewart told Macquarie Radio.
Asked whether the attack could have been motivated by revenge, he said that was possible.
"We're a bit confounded as to the reasons why," he said.
Police said five youths, aged between 14 and 16, entered the school through the main gate at around 9:00 am and confronted an assembly in an outdoor quadrangle.
They then ran through the corridors of two school buildings, smashing windows and showering students with glass.
When police confronted the youths, they dropped their weapons and did not resist arrest. The education department said the rampage lasted just six minutes.
Stewart said he was stunned by the brazenness of the incident.
"It beggars belief they would attempt this kind of activity against innocent students," he said.
New South Wales police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said police were continually working with the security branch of the education department to ensure the state's schools remained safe.
"We have seen over the past year or two an increase in the number of Internet-based alerts, for instance, that we've had where people have been contemplating violence," Scipione said.
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