Suspect arrested after stabbing attack at Bavaria school injures several students

Police arrested a 16-year-old boy after a stabbing attack at Welfen-Gymnasium in Schongau left at least two 13-year-old girls seriously injured and sent a major emergency response through the Bavarian town. Officers said the incident began at about 12.50 p.m. local time on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, after calls reached police about injured people at the secondary school in Upper Bavaria.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the two girls had been stabbed. They were taken to hospital and were out of immediate life-threatening danger. There were additional injured people being treated medically or psychologically, although the total number of those affected was still being clarified in the early hours after the attack.

Police believed the suspect was the perpetrator. Police treated the scene as a possible rampage attack and urged the public to stay away from the area while investigators secured the school grounds. A helicopter was used in the operation, and all available regional police units were dispatched to Schongau.

The suspect was carrying both a knife and a firearm, but no gun had been found by early reporting. Ammunition was recovered as officers worked through the scene and checked whether any further danger remained. The 16-year-old had been detained on the school grounds.

The attacker targeted the Welfen grammar school. The school, in a quiet part of Schongau in the Alps region of Bavaria, became the focus of a large police cordon as officers tried to account for every injured student and clarify what happened inside the building.