A Class 10 student was critically injured after a man allegedly attacked her with a chainsaw inside her classroom at a government school in Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district on Friday, in an assault that has shocked the state and prompted Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to order a swift investigation and the harshest legal punishment for the attacker. Another student was also injured when she tried to intervene and stop the assault.
The accused fled the school after the attack, and police have launched a manhunt to trace and arrest him.
The incident took place inside a classroom at the Zilla Parishad High School in Raptadu mandal headquarters, while lessons were under way. According to preliminary police findings, the accused entered the classroom carrying a chainsaw of the kind used for cutting trees and attacked the girl in front of her classmates, inflicting severe injuries to her face, head and back.
Teachers and students immediately alerted the local police and rushed the injured girl to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment, where she was reported to be in a critical condition. The second student, who was hurt while attempting to stop the attacker, also received medical attention.
A preliminary investigation has revealed that the accused was a distant relative of the victim and had allegedly been harassing her for some time. Police suspect that the situation escalated after the girl warned him to stay away from her and threatened to inform her parents about his advances. The accused is believed to have developed a grudge against her following the rejection, and investigators say that grudge appears to have driven the attack inside the school.
Police reached the school soon after the incident, registered a case and began an investigation, examining how the accused entered the school premises carrying the weapon and whether there were lapses in the school's security arrangements.
Chief Minister Naidu expressed shock and anguish over the attack and said he was personally tracking the girl's recovery. In a post on social media, he wrote that he was deeply shaken and enraged by what he described as a barbaric attack on a Class 10 student inside her classroom at Raptadu ZP High School, and that attackers who target young girls inside schools have no place in society.
He said he had directed the medical team to give her the highest priority care, and had ordered the police to hunt down the person responsible and deliver the harshest legal punishment swiftly. The Chief Minister also contacted senior district and medical officials to take stock of the girl's condition and to ensure that she receives the best possible emergency treatment.
The attack has left students, teachers and parents in the area deeply shaken, triggering fear and panic at the school. For the children who watched the assault unfold in their own classroom, the incident is likely to leave a lasting impact, and educators and counsellors say that attention will need to be paid not only to the injured students but also to the classmates who witnessed the violence.
Schools are meant to be among the safest places for children, and an attack inside a classroom during school hours raises difficult questions about how an outsider carrying a dangerous weapon was able to walk into a classroom unchallenged.
The incident has also renewed debate about the safety of girls in schools and about the handling of harassment complaints. The preliminary findings suggest that the victim had already been subjected to harassment by the accused before the attack, and that she had pushed back by warning him to stay away.
Cases in which harassment escalates into violence are a recurring concern for police and child welfare authorities, who repeatedly urge families and schools to report threatening behaviour early so that preventive action can be taken before a situation turns dangerous. In this case, investigators are now piecing together the sequence of events, including when the harassment began, whether it had been reported to anyone, and what warnings, if any, the accused had received.
Raptadu is a mandal headquarters in Anantapur district, a largely rural region of Andhra Pradesh where Zilla Parishad schools serve as the mainstay of public education for thousands of children. Like many government schools in rural areas, the Raptadu school draws students from surrounding villages, and its classrooms are often the only formal learning spaces available to local families.
The attack has therefore resonated far beyond one school, with parents across the district asking how safe their children are during the school day and what measures will be put in place to prevent a repeat.
Police officials have said that teams are working to trace the accused, who remains absconding, and that a search operation is under way. Investigators are examining the circumstances that led to the attack, including the accused's movements before he entered the school and the route by which he fled. Once arrested, the accused is expected to face stringent charges, and the Chief Minister has made clear that the government wants the case pursued with urgency.
Legal proceedings in such cases typically involve charges relating to attempt to murder and assault, along with provisions protecting children, though the exact sections will be determined by the investigation and the evidence collected.
Beyond the immediate investigation, the incident is likely to prompt a wider review of school security in the state. Questions being asked include whether schools should have stricter controls on visitors, whether staff should be trained to respond to intruders, and whether local police should conduct regular safety checks at schools, particularly those in rural areas where staffing and infrastructure are thinner.
Education department officials are expected to examine what happened at Raptadu in detail, and parents' groups have called for concrete steps rather than assurances alone.
For now, the immediate concern remains the condition of the injured girl and the arrest of the accused. Medical teams are treating her as a priority case, and the state government has said it is monitoring her recovery closely. Police have appealed for information that could help trace the accused, and the investigation continues.
The incident stands as a grim reminder of how quickly harassment can escalate, and of how much depends on schools, families and the police acting together to protect children before a threat becomes a tragedy.
(Reporting based on News18 and Mathrubhumi.)