Alois Ebner, spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office Ried, confirmed the incident, which occurred in mid-April, at the request of the news outlet OÖN.
According to Ebner, a nine-year-old boy with Turkish roots wielded an old kitchen knife on his way home from school. “He also admits that he threatened the somewhat older student, saying that he had been teased, but that he did not mean the threat seriously,” said Ebner.
The school confirmed the incident at the request of OÖN. Director Irene Horn says that the children who had been threatened confided in a teacher and that they handed over the knife they took after the incident.
This incident should not be swept under the carpet, the school believes. “Even if the boy is still under age, we must not conceal this,” says the director. She knows the details of the incident, because one of the students filmed everything with a mobile phone. “It looked like it was in an action movie, the boy has apparently seen too many such films,” says the director.
The final report is nearing completion and as the boy has not been convicted, the case will be closed since the investigation has not revealed that he was instigated by his parents to do so. “The Youth Welfare receives the final report from us” Ebner said . The boy’s parents were called in, the school management said on request.
The school management of Rieder elementary school, where the nine-year-old is a student, can offer no explanation for the incident. It says that the boy is “no brutal bully”, but cannot explain how this regrettable situation came about.