Heavily armed police have descended on a school in Germany after reports of a knife-weilding person inside the building.
Sedanstrasse high school in the Barmen area of Wuppertal, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, has been cordened off, and so has parts of the town centre.
At around 10am local time on April 19, police jumped to action after reports of a masked assailant at the school, with students said to have locked themselves into their classrooms before leaving exams were set to commence.
Concerned parents had started to arrive at the scene. There were no injuries, police said.
Reporters at the scene shared images of a steady stream of armed specialist police officers arriving at the school.
German police wrote on X, formerly Twitter, saying: “Current operation at a school in #Barmen : The police are on site with many emergency personnel and are clarifying the situation. Please avoid the area. #Wuppertal”.
Police spokesman Andreas Reuter told BILD: “The operation began shortly after 10 a.m. this morning. We received information about a suspicious person in the school area.
“We then brought together strong emergency services and took appropriate measures.”
Watch videos from the scene below.
+++EIL+++ #Amok-Alarm an Gymnasium in #Wuppertal, #Polizei im Großeinsatz, Spezialeinheiten aus ganz Nordrhein-Westfalen treffen an der Schule ein, noch ist unklar, ob Fehlalarm oder wirklich Täter im Gebäude! pic.twitter.com/dLfUDZUOf1
— Frank Schneider (@chefreporterNRW) April 19, 2024
Immer mehr schwer bewaffnete SEK-Beamte laufen in die Schule, angeblich wurde eine maskierte Person mit Messer im #Gymnasiumgesehen #Wuppertal #Amok #Polizeipic.twitter.com/GYNyjB6cHw
— Frank Schneider (@chefreporterNRW) April 19, 2024
