A 14-year-old, described by fellow pupils as hot-headed, on Thursday stabbed three teachers and two students in a school in southern Spain before being overpowered, police said.

The boy, who has not been named, allegedly stabbed the five victims repeatedly shortly after classes started at the school in Jerez de la Frontera, police spokesman Adrian Dominguez told reporters at the scene.

“Police located the suspect on the third floor. He had in his possession the two knives used to attack three teachers and two students,” Dominguez said, adding the suspect had been taken to a police station.

The spokesman was unable to comment on the extent of the injuries, but Spanish media said one teacher was in serious condition after being stabbed in the eye while the rest suffered light injuries.

The attack caused alarm in Spain, where violent crime is fairly rare.

Parents rushed to the school after hearing about the stabbing, gathering outside the gates which were cordoned off by police, images broadcast on Spanish TV showed.

“It was devastating and dramatic because all the parents were on the outside of the school wishing they could hug their children,” Jerez de la Frontera mayor Maria Jose Garcia-Pelayo told reporters, adding that the teachers managed to disarm the suspect.

Several students told Spanish media that the boy often got into fights and was quick tempered.

“I saw the guy with two knives with a look on his face like he wanted to stab everyone,” one student who declined to be named told Canal Sur television. (AFP: Text, Excluding Headline)