Three injured in axe attack in Kazakhstan middle school

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AFP) - A student wielding an axe and a knife on Monday wounded three students at a middle school in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan, authorities said.

The alleged attacker, who was later detained, "came out of the toilet with a knife and an axe," said an official in Petropavlovsk, a city with a population of some 200,000 near the Russian border, according to the official news agency Kazinform.

Kazinform said two of the injured students were hospitalised and the other was treated on the scene. The two boys and one girl were all conscious, it added.

The regional prosecutor's office said proceedings had been opened into attempted murder and that the suspect had been undergoing psychiatric monitoring prior to the attack.