According to the agency, last year police recorded 193 attacks with knives, or other sharp weapons, in schools in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), which was 47 percent more than the previous year, the highest increase in knife incidents since 2018, when 182 cases were recorded.

In 2019, the number of aggression dropped to 103, which is partly credited to the Covid-19 pandemic, the interior ministry stated.

“Why they carry knives in school bags, remains a mystery to me”, NRW Interior Minister Herbert Royle expressed, quoted by the WAZ portal.

Experts point out that violence not only continued this year, but reached a negative peak already last January when a 17-year-old student stabbed to death a 55-year-old vocational school teacher in Ibbenbüren.

A few days ago, a student committed suicide in a detention cell.

jrr/jav/mgt/amp