A teenage girl has been taken to hospital after being stabbed at a secondary school near Norwich, triggering a major armed police response that left pupils hiding under desks with classroom doors barricaded for over an hour while a suspect remained at large.
Officers were called to Thorpe St Andrew School on Laundry Lane at 10.24am following reports of a stabbing. Pupils were instructed to conceal themselves, switch off their phones and remain in classrooms while teachers barricaded doors from the inside. Police drones were deployed as officers searched for the suspect, who was believed to have fled the school grounds by jumping over a fence. An arrest was made at around 11.30am — more than an hour after the initial call.
A 16-year-old boy has been detained on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and taken to Wymondham Police Investigation Centre for questioning. The victim, understood to be a pupil at the school, was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
The lockdown prompted distressing scenes outside the school gates as dozens of parents converged on the site after learning of the incident through social media. Many expressed frustration at the lack of communication from the school. One parent, Darren Evans, whose daughter is in Year Eight, told the Eastern Daily Press: “If it were not for Facebook and the news, I would have had no idea what was going on.” Another said the absence of information had caused their mind to “instantly go to the worst.”
Parents described receiving text messages from their children inside the school. One pupil messaged family to say “I am very scared,” while another said they “just want to go home.” A teacher at the school told ITV News Anglia the situation was “one of the things you practice, but never think you’ll do.” A member of the school’s security staff later told waiting parents that “everyone is now safe.”
Norwich North MP Alice MacDonald described the reports as “incredibly serious and deeply, deeply alarming,” saying her thoughts were with the victim and their family.
Norfolk Police confirmed the stabbing is not believed to be linked to a separate hate crime incident at the same school last week, in which Jewish pupils from the Jewish Free School in London alleged they were subjected to antisemitic abuse and racial slurs by spectators during an Under-15s national football tournament held at the site on 5 March.
Other schools in Norfolk are understood to have kept children inside over lunchtime as a precautionary measure. Thorpe St Andrew School, rated Good in its most recent Ofsted inspection, remains in lockdown. The investigation is ongoing.
