BENSONHURST, Brooklyn (WPIX) — A “heroic” 11-year-old called the police after she and three other children were stabbed in Brooklyn, police said.

The incident happened around 10:15 a.m. at a home on 84th Street between 16th and 17th Avenues, according to fire officials. The 11-year-old, hiding in a room while calling 911, told police she and her three sisters, ages 8, 13, and 16, had been stabbed by their uncle, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a Sunday update to reporters.

Tisch explained that when police arrived on the scene, they found a man holding a “large meat cleaver covered in blood.”

Another uninjured child had also gone to the neighbors for help, then led police into the building when they arrived, Tisch said. Once in a hallway, police could hear screams from behind a closed door.

Police kicked down the door to find a “horrific,” bloody scene and the suspected attacker.

Officers told the man to drop his weapon several times before two officers shot at him seven times, striking him at least once, Tisch said. The suspected attacker, she added, was taken to an area hospital in critical condition.

According to Tisch, all four girls had “serious slash and stab wounds” and received care on scene before being transported to an area hospital. They are all expected to survive.

“There was five children in there, four hurt and a young man who so bravely went to the neighbors to alert the neighbors to call us. Also, that 11-year-old who made that [911] call –quite heroic on their behalf,” Chief of Department John Chell said Sunday.

Police found a second knife on the scene, while the man’s relationship with the girls and the motive remain under investigation.

Family members told police the suspected attacker has a history of mental illness, but there is no reported history of domestic violence at the home, authorities said. No additional details were immediately available.