16-year-old ex-student attacks two girls at Schongau school; quick actions by classmates and teachers credited with saving a life
A 16-year-old former student armed with a pistol and knife wounded two 13-year-old girls at the Welfen-Gymnasium in Schongau, Bavaria, on Wednesday. Teachers and police overpowered him within 17 minutes, and classmates’ emergency first aid likely prevented a death.
What happened
At 12:50 on 8 July, an alarm was triggered at the Welfen-Gymnasium in Schongau, Upper Bavaria. A 16-year-old former student approached the school with a pistol, fired one shot that harmed no one, then the weapon malfunctioned. He drew a knife and attacked two 13-year-old female students, inflicting severe injuries. Teachers and arriving police subdued him roughly 17 minutes after the first alert. The suspect, a Croatian national, was taken into pre-trial detention.
- Alarm triggered at Welfen-Gymnasium
- Suspect fires one shot, pistol jams
- Suspect attacks two girls with a knife
- Teachers and police overpower the attacker
The suspect
Investigations revealed the teenager had been temporarily excluded from classes twice while still enrolled at the gymnasium. After numerous discussions involving his parents, teachers, school psychologists and other professionals, he was deregistered and signed up at a different school. He had been in psychiatric treatment, lived with his parents and was previously known to authorities: in 2025 the Munich II public prosecutor’s office investigated him for threatening classmates and glorifying school shootings on social media, but grounds for detention never existed at that stage. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described him as an EU citizen without a refugee background and said investigators assume he acted in a psychological exceptional situation.
We assume it was a lone‑perpetrator amok act.
Victims and lifesavers
The two 13-year-old victims, described as random targets, were rushed to hospital with life‑threatening injuries but are now out of danger. Fellow students immediately called emergency services, tore off their own shirts to use as pressure bandages and fetched first‑aid kits from their cars and the school’s medical room.
The first ones called rescue services and police right away. Schoolmates of mine – I helped too, of course – ripped off their shirts and T‑shirts, used them as pressure dressings to staunch the bleeding. Pushed down with full force.
Bavarian Education Minister Anna Stolz, who visited the school on Thursday, said one girl would very likely have bled out without that help and called the students and two teachers who overpowered the attacker “real heroes.”
One of the girls would very likely have bled to death if they hadn’t done that. So they probably saved her life. To me, those are real heroes.
Response and aftermath
Around 160 emergency personnel responded, and six rescue helicopters were deployed. Crisis intervention teams began psychological support for pupils and staff. Minister Stolz promised the school family every conceivable assistance, including extra staff in the coming school year. Bavarian Premier Markus Söder expressed his sympathy, saying such an act tears “many invisible wounds.” The suspect is to be brought before a magistrate for a detention review; the Munich II prosecutor’s office is investigating him for attempted murder.
