schools
Police operation at Wuppertal high school
Police officers lead students in Wuppertal out of the building into an evacuation bus. photo
© Sascha Thelen/dpa
Just eight weeks ago there was an attack at a high school in Wuppertal that left eight people injured. Now there was an alarm again.
The search of the building complex has now been completed, a police spokeswoman said at midday. Security sources said they couldn’t find anything suspicious on site. Shortly afterwards, a dpa reporter observed that the students were led out of the building and taken to waiting buses.
The police had previously reported that a caller called the police emergency number shortly after 10 a.m. and gave the tip. The use of special forces is common in such cases. There were severe traffic disruptions due to the heavy police presence. The area around Sedanstrasse in Wuppertal-Barmen should be avoided, the police advised. A police helicopter was in the air above the high school.
There were high school exams coming up
According to the homepage of the high school with around 700 students and 55 teachers, Abitur exams in biology, chemistry, physics and computer science were scheduled for Friday. The city of Wuppertal set up a contact point for relatives and emergency services in the immediate vicinity of the school in a residents’ registration office, as a spokeswoman for the city of Wuppertal said. There are also several school psychologists on duty.
Eight weeks ago there was an attack at another high school in Wuppertal. A 17-year-old high school student injured four classmates and himself with a knife in a break room. Three students suffered shock. The Wuppertal district court had issued an arrest warrant against the high school student for two counts of attempted murder and two counts of grievous bodily harm.
Just three days ago, a school in Düsseldorf was also searched following a tip-off about a suspicious person. As it later turned out, it was a student who had been handling an airsoft gun. He is now being investigated for violating the weapons law, it was said on Friday.