A 31-year-old man has been charged in a shocking attack at the Eastern College campus in Fredericton that sent four people, including the suspect, to hospital.

Luke Thomas Powers of Fredericton is facing two counts of aggravated assault and one count of assault in connection with the incident. He is a student at the school.

Fredericton Police said two students and an instructor were injured with a machete-style knife Monday morning.

The injuries range from minor to serious but none are believed to be life-threatening. The instructor, Lanette Ruff, underwent surgery and remains in hospital.

Witnesses told CTV News they heard screams coming from a classroom inside the college shortly after 8 a.m. Monday.

Tasha Drost, 20, said she was sitting in her criminology class when a fellow student entered with a large knife.

“When he went to James he…was swinging at him and hit James on the head, got him really bad,” she said

“Then James got up to try and stop him and try to…and then Lanette came around and hollered.”

The school was placed on lockdown and police quickly responded to the scene. Police said a student had the man subdued on the floor when police arrived.

“I want to make note of a student, whose name I cannot release at this time, whose intervention was critical in ensuring that a bad situation was not made a lot worse than it was,” said Fredericton Police Chief Leanne Fitch.

Classes were cancelled and the college was closed Monday and Tuesday. Classes are scheduled to resume Wednesday.

Debra Johns, the vice-president of campus operations, says safety protocol on all the school’s campuses will be reviewed, but she’s not sure if any safety measures could have prevented Monday’s attack.

“In this particular case, these individuals were individuals that were supposed to be in the school, so it wasn’t as if someone came in from outside,” says Johns.

“It occurred between people who were supposed to be here.”

Johns is also praising the quick actions of a number of people at the college.

“There were some heroes, being students, in the classroom that actually confronted the attacker…the instructor, who actually intervened, because apparently the individual was going after some students in the class,” says Johns.

Powers’ lawyer, T.J. Burke, asked for the case to be set over so he could obtain “medical information necessary to represent” his client.

“I believe that that’s just a prudent step in any defence counsel’s development of a case to show cause why a client should be released or should seek some form of assessment to make a determination if he’s criminally responsible for his actions,” says Burke.

Powers is due back in court on February 7.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Andy Campbell

Note: Police said Monday that two instructors and a student were injured in the attack. However, they issued a clarification Tuesday, stating that two students and one instructor were among those attacked.