Twenty hurt in stabbing spree at Pennsylvania high school

Twenty people were injured, at least nine seriously, when a student at a Pittsburgh-area high school went on a stabbing rampage early on Wednesday, officials said. The suspected attacker, who was not identified, was in police custody, deputy emergency management coordinator for the Westmoreland County, Dan Stevens, told reporters. Seven students between the ages of 15 and 17 and one adult were admitted to Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, with stab wounds.

 "These are all very serious injuries," hospital spokesman Jesse Miller said in a telephone interview. The attacks took place in several classrooms and hallways as the school day began at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, 20 miles east of Pittsburgh, county emergency management officials said. The first 911 call was received at 7:13 a.m. EDT. Three of the patients admitted were in surgery and all eight were in critical condition, hospital spokesman Miller said. He said a ninth patient who had arrived at the hospital was airlifted to another facility. Zak Amsler, a 17-year-old junior at the school, said the attack occurred just before his first class was scheduled to begin. "I saw a girl with blood running out of her sleeve," Amsler said as he waited to pick up his younger sister, a student at the nearby middle school. "It was pretty mind-blowing."