Columbine-Style Attack Averted At San Mateo’s Hillsdale High School

UPDATE: Police in San Mateo, California, said Monday that “a potentially very drastic event” at a high school was averted when school personnel subdued a former student who walked into the school armed with pipe bombs, a chainsaw and a 2-foot-long sword.

“It had the potential to be a catastrophic incident,” said police Lt. Mike Brunicardi, describing the incident in which two pipe bombs exploded and at least 1,200 students and faculty were evacuated from the Northern California school.

No one was injured in the incident, police said.

Brunicardi said a 17-year-old former student wearing a nylon vest packed with 10 homemade pipe bombs entered Hillsdale High School in San Mateo about 8 a.m. Monday. He detonated two devices, with smoke setting off the school’s fire-alarm system, before two teachers confronted him.

“The suspect was quickly wrestled down by a teacher who, with the help of the principal and another teacher, were able to hold him down until police arrived minutes later,” Brunicardi said.

The suspect’s intentions were not clear, police said.

Original Story

Former student set off pipe bomb. Police flooded the campus of Hillsdale High School in San Mateo Monday morning. Students were seen leaving the area by the hundreds after authorities canceled classes for the day following an explosion on campus.

The students gathered at a large black top area behind Abbott Middle School about a block away from the school. That is where the school told parents to pick their children up from school.

Police were called to the school at 8:07 a.m. after reports that someone brought a gun on campus. While police were on their way, they heard the report of an explosion.

The assistant superintendent for the district Kurt Black said a former student set off some kind of explosive device inside the school. He said it didn’t do any damage and nobody was hurt. Black said the teachers knew the student and somehow were able to take hold of him until police arrived. He is now in police custody.

One student who was on campus described the sound of the explosion as “a thousand M-80s going off.”

Another student said her teacher ordered everyone to get under their desks after he noticed smoke in the hall. That girl said she saw a guitar case, a chainsaw, a pipe and some brown liquid in the hallway as she ran out of the school.

Someone else said he saw a kid running down the hall carrying pipe bombs in his arms with a counselor running after him after he heard what he described as an explosion.

KTVU is quoting a source that says police found more than one pipe bomb on campus.

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