Psychiatric patient stabs 3 in Danish hospital
Mar 16, 2012, 8:39 PM
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – A psychiatric patient stabbed a doctor and two nurses at a Danish hospital on Friday, then surrendered after a 10-hour standoff with police.
It wasn’t clear how the inpatient had obtained the knife.
The 47-year-old patient at Odense University Hospital’s psychiatric ward stabbed the doctor in the stomach and the two female nurses in the face, chest and abdomen, said the hospital’s medical director, Anders Meinert Pedersen. The doctor and one of the nurses were in critical condition.
Following the attack, the patient locked himself in a room of the hospital and was arrested 10 hours later when he surrendered, said police spokesman Lars Fredensborg.
Meinert Pedersen said the man _ suffering from paranoia _ had contacted the ward Wednesday and asked to be admitted, then changed his mind and was forcefully interned.
Friday’s stabbing occurred just as he was getting medication, Meinert Pedersen said.
The patient, who was not identified in keeping with Danish policy, had previously been sentenced to compulsory psychiatric care for arms possession and arson.
Odense is 105 miles (170 kilometers) west of Copenhagen.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)