Shock at uni stabbing

Julia Medew
May 8, 2007

A female science student was wearing a home-made balaclava and leather gloves when she attacked another female student with a steak knife at La Trobe University in Melbourne's north this morning.

Police sources have told theage.com.au that the 23-year-old Bundoora woman stabbed a behavioural science student she did not know in a toilet block inside the Bundoora campus library about 11am.

The attacker waited calmly inside the the library for emergency services to arrive after the attack, a police source said.

The victim, a North Fitzroy woman in her mid-20s, suffered multiple stab wounds. She is in a serious but stable condition at the Royal Melbourne hospital.

The accused woman has been interviewed by police and will appear at Preston police station for a remand hearing at 5pm.

'Everybody get out of the building'

Arts student and Student Representative Council member Sarah Wickham told theage.com.au that she joined those fleeing the library before raising the alarm about the stabbing.

"I was on the third level on the library studying and I just decided to go down to the toilet.

"So I walked down the stairs to go to the second floor where everybody enters the library and this girl just starts screaming: 'Everybody get the f*** out of the building my friend's just been stabbed'."

Ms Wickham says that students assumed responsibility for evacuating the library.

"Everybody just started running from the building and I just started telling people that we should be evacuating the building.

"So then I ran over to the SRC and called campus security; then the police came; the paramedics eventually came. The police then boarded off the entry to the library and all the library staff started coming out.

"Then between five and 10 minutes later an alarm started going off in the library to make sure everybody was out of the library."

Students shocked by attack

SRC president Sarah Cole said students were shocked about the attack.

Ms Cole said the Bundoora campus, on Melbourne's outer-suburban fringe, was a friendly place.

"It's very strange to think this could happen here," she said.

"Some of the members of the SRC were saying they couldn't imagine going into the library again," she said.

'Counselling to be provided'

In a statement this afternoon university Pro-Vice-Chancellor Dr Kerry Ferguson said the university had told the victim's parent of the attack.

She said the university was pleased with security's immediate response.

Dr Ferguson said counselling would be provided for staff and students.

Today's incident is the second security scare at the campus this year.

In March, a La Trobe student was arrested after being found with a handgun at the Bundoora campus, near where a gunman killed one and wounded another during a shooting spree eight years ago.

Handgun scare

But in a bizarre twist, the gun turned out to be a plastic prop in a play the 20-year-old student was performing in.

The student was arrested without incident and questioned by Heidelberg police before he was released pending further inquiries.

In August 1999, a student at the university walked into the Eagle Bar at the Bundoora campus armed with a revolver and shot and wounded a young woman before shooting bar manager Leon Capraro, 49, killing him instantly.

theage.com.au, with Leo Shanahan and Adam Morton


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