A staff member at L.A. Matheson secondary school sustained serious injuries after being assaulted with an unspecified weapon on Friday morning, police say.

Surrey Mounties and members of the Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team responded to the assault at 8:25 am.

The ERT team did a security sweep.

鈥淭he injured person has been taken to hospital,鈥� Corporal Elenore Sturko said. The victim is in stable condition.

The school was locked down and classes were then cancelled.

鈥淲e鈥檝e cancelled classes for today,鈥� Ritinder Matthew, spokeswoman for the school district, told the Now-Leader. 鈥淣o students or staff are being permitted into the school at this time. For students that are not able to return home, we鈥檝e established a safe and supervised environment for them at a nearby school.

Sturko said a suspect was seen leaving the school in a dark grey Kia sedan.

鈥淲e haven鈥檛 made any arrests yet,鈥� she said. 鈥淎t this time the suspect has not been identified by police and the motivation for this assault has not been determined.鈥�

鈥淧olice are looking to speak to anyone who may have witnessed the vehicle leaving, or may have CCTV or dashcam footage,鈥� she said. 鈥淧olice believe that this incident involved a single suspect and they are currently working on obtaining all available descriptions of that person. Further information on the suspect will be released following the completion of critical witness interviews.鈥�

Police ask anyone with footage to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502.

Constable Richard Wright would not confirm what the victim鈥檚 job at the school is or if someone connected to the school or from outside is believed to have done the assault.

鈥淎t this point we鈥檙e still gathering statements at scene and trying to put together a motive for this incident. So our investigators are still on scene, making sure everything is safe, and gathering evidence so that we can pursue the investigation.

鈥淲e aren鈥檛 releasing mechanism of injury, anything like that, because we鈥檙e still on scene with witnesses and we can鈥檛 pollute their statements,鈥� Wright told the Now-Leader, 鈥渁nd to have any information to go out about it, we can鈥檛 do it.鈥�

tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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