NSW: Teens with axe and machete smashed school canteen and car
02 Mar 2009 12:55 PM
SYDNEY, March 2 AAP - Four teenage boys went on a rampage through a western Sydney high school on Monday, smashing a glass noticeboard, the canteen and a school car with a 40cm machete and a tomahawk, police say.
Police arrested two 16-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy, all from the local area, in the playground of co-educational Trinity Catholic College in Park Road in Auburn, in Sydney's west, at 8.15am (AEDT), after being alerted by teachers at the school.
They arrested a 17-year-old Bankstown boy, who was unarmed, on Park Road 10 minutes later, Flemington Inspector Darren Cloake said.
"The three were arrested inside the playground area near the canteen," Insp Cloake told reporters.
The fourth teenager was arrested "within 10 minutes".
"He wasn't armed at the time," he said.
Police were examining reports the youths were looking for a student at the school, but Insp Cloake dismissed reports it was a dispute over a girl.
He said students and teachers were being counselled, and some parents were picking their children up from school.
No one was physically injured in the incident, but two women were in the canteen when the attack happened and one teacher was pushed when she encountered the rampaging teenagers.
"They have smashed that (canteen) area up with an axe and a machete, they've then attacked a car that had been parked on site ... and they've also smashed a number of noticeboards in the main part of the school area," police Superintendent Brett Henderson said earlier.
"Whilst doing that (they have) been confronted by one of the teachers, that teacher's been jostled out of the road," Supt Henderson told ABC radio.
The Catholic Education Office said students had begun arriving at the school when the attack happened.
Staff at the school had called police immediately and police had responded promptly, regional director Frank Malloy told AAP.
"All students are safe and accounted for," he said, but counselling had been offered to everyone affected.
Mr Malloy said he did not believe any of the attackers were past or present students at the school.
