Youths attack school teachers, pupils with axes and machetes

At least 13 people were injured, two of them seriously, after a group of youths descended on a school in Midlands South province attacking teachers and pupils with machetes and axes, SW Radio Africa reports.

Ezra Sibanda, an MDC-T aspiring candidate for Vungu constituency, said passersby were also not spared during the brutal attack that took place at Shagari Primary School in Lower Gweru in the late afternoon on Monday.

He told SW Radio Africa that the assailants went on a rampage, wielding  knobkerries, axes, machetes, knives & bricks, for no apparent reasons.

Sibanda said the victims had to receive medical attention with two of them, including a teacher, being hospitalized at Gweru General Hospital.

Sibanda said the attack started inside the school yard resulting in teachers and children fleeing in all directions, running away from the youths who are known in the community.

"They are a group of thugs. We don't know their motives. We don't know who is backing them but with the power that they have that the police don't do anything we suspect that our opponents are sponsoring them."

The MDC-T member said the school did not open Tuesday as teachers are afraid to enter the premises.

We could not reach the police or the education Minister David Coltart for comment.