A female chemistry student from UCLA was hospitalized on Thursday after a classmate slashed her throat in a lab at Young Hall, according to an update from the UCLA Web site.

The Los Angeles Times reported that local police have booked Damon D. Thompson on suspicion of attempted murder. UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton ttold the Associated Press that both the victim and the suspect are 20-year-old senior students in an organic chemistry class, and other students were also in the lab at the time of the incident. Various sources from the campus said that the two may have been lab partners.

The victim’s name has not been released yet, but she was rushed to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in critical condition. After a surgery, she has been in stable condition, according to the Times.

Cyril Baida, a teaching assistant who was across the hall, said that he saw the girl walk out of the lab with another TA applying pressure to her neck, according to the AP, saying that the victim “was completely drenched with blood.”

After the attack, UCLA police sent a text message alert to the campus community, informing everyone about the incident and telling them that they should stay away from the area. Los Angeles Police interviewed about 30 people who were around the lab and might have seen the attack, but they have not found a possible motive for the stabbing.

One of the witnesses who was inside the lab where the incident happened told the Times that it appeared the victim was punched repeatedly. The witness knew it was a more serious matter when the victim was bleeding and slumped over. Another witness told the Times that they “thought somebody blew themselves up with chemicals,” before adding that the incident was “horrifying because she was a fellow student and a partner.”

“People are shocked that something like that would happen,” said Sabeeha Merchant, a biochemistry professor at the school. “But because we are at the university doesn’t mean we are immune from what goes on in the rest of the world. This could happen in a restaurant or a shopping mall.”

Similarly, the Times reported on a statement from UCLA Chancellor Gene Block:

“We are all shocked by the attack that occurred in one of our chemistry teaching labs. I know you join me in wishing for the speedy recovery of the young woman who was injured; our thoughts are with her and her family.”

Our Take:

It is scary when incidents like this happen, but I can’t help but wonder one thing. There were other students in the lab, so how come they were not immediately alerted that there may be an altercation going on. Maybe it was a huge lab, or the students were in separate corners; I don’t know. But it’s just weird that this went on as far as it did, when I think it could’ve been stopped early on.

Here’s video of a press conference from the UCLA Web Site: