Nine-year-old girl beaten with hammer inside school in Oakland, California

A FAMILY feud turned horrific when a woman attacked a nine-year-old girl with a hammer inside the little girl’s school.

Hammer. Tradie's tools. Generic image.

A FAMILY feud has lead to a woman beating a nine-year-old girl with a hammer in a school toilet in California.

The mother of a another second grade student attacked the child inside Oakland’s Lafayette Elementary School about 10.30am on Friday, ABC7 News reports.

The woman, a well-known volunteer at the school, hid the hammer until she lured the third-grader into the toilet and struck her body several times.

School spokesman Troy Flynt said an argument between the two students may have sparked the attack — but that the motive went much deeper.

“It seems there was some sort of family feud and this act was perpetrated as one of vengeance to get back against this other family with which this other woman had a conflict,” Mr Flynt said.

“The child was conscious during this process and in remarkably good spirits considering the incredible trauma she’d been through.”

The girl was treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

Parent Antoinette Badio told ABC7 News that the news was “very scary”.

“I mean if I was here and I see a lady with a hammer, I would take my daughter out right way,” she said.

Both the mother and the victim are new immigrants from Yemen.

The woman is in Alameda County jail facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

Originally published as Nine-year-old girl beaten with hammer inside school in Oakland, California