A 15-year-old student is fighting for her life after a man allegedly entered her classroom at the Zilla Parishad High School in Raptadu, in Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district, on Saturday morning, October 31, and attacked her with a mechanised tree-cutting chainsaw while a lesson was under way, officials and multiple news reports said. A second student who tried to intervene was also seriously injured.

Source: IANS

According to IANS, the main student sustained severe injuries to her face, head and throat, deep wounds to her neck and abdomen, and her right hand was reportedly almost severed. Both injured students were taken first for emergency treatment in Anantapur and are described by officials as battling for their lives. Some early reports on smaller sites claimed one student had died; that has NOT been confirmed — IANS and other established reports describe both students as critically injured and under treatment, with no fatality confirmed.

Police said the alleged attacker fled the school after the assault, dropping the chainsaw at the scene. Reports citing NDTV and other outlets later said the accused — identified in media reports as 21-year-old Hemanth, also known as Dummu, from the Dharmavaram area of Sri Sathya Sai district — was arrested at Dharmavaram railway station. He is an adult accused named in police-facing reporting; the allegations against him are unproven and the case is under investigation. Police have registered a case and said they are still establishing the motive and whether the accused was known to the student beforehand.

Source: Saptashwa TV / NDTV reports

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu condemned the attack in a post on X, writing that he was 'deeply shaken and enraged by the barbaric attack' on a student inside her classroom at Raptadu ZP High School and that 'attackers who target our young girls inside schools have no place in our society.' He said he is personally monitoring her recovery, directed the medical team to give her the highest-priority care, spoke to her mother by phone, and said he had ordered police to deliver the harshest legal punishment swiftly, according to IANS. TDP leader Nara Lokesh also condemned the attack.

Source: IANS — CM Naidu reaction

Former chief minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy also condemned the attack on X, calling it, in his words, a sign of a 'total collapse of law and order' under the TDP-led government — a political allegation by the opposition leader, reported by BizzBuzz. The attack has raised questions about how a man carrying a chainsaw was able to enter the school and reach a classroom; according to The Indian Express, cited in other reports, repair work was under way at the school and staff may have mistaken the man for a worker — that detail is reported, not officially confirmed.

Anantapur Rural Sub-Divisional Police Officer K. Ashwin Manideep confirmed the chainsaw attack and said police teams had been sent in connection with the case, according to Fact.net reporting. This report does not name the injured students: they are minors, and only their age and district are given, in line with minor-safety rules. Further official updates on their condition and on the investigation are awaited.