14-year-old in court over the stabbing of a fellow pupil who was left with knife lodged in his neck
A 14-year-old was arrested and will appear in court today in connection with the stabbing of a 17-year-old pupil, who was left with a knife embedded in his neck after the attack.
The victim, a pupil at Trenance Park Secondary School, Verulam, was on his way to his home in Amaoti, when the attack allegedly happened.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda confirmed that Verulam police arrested the pupil in connection with the attempted murder incident on Friday.
Netshiunda said police responded to reports of a stabbing incident at a secondary school in Trenance Park. However, when police arrived on the scene, the victim had already been rushed to a nearby medical facility.
He said it was alleged that the boys had an altercation, which resulted in the perpetrator stabbing the victim with a knife.
“The suspect is expected to appear in court,” Netshiunda said.
An informant, known to the victim’s mother, who asked not to be identified, said the parent was struggling to come to terms with the attack on her son.
“She’s (doing) better now, but a mom is never okay while her child is in the hospital,” said the source.
“He is healing,” she said about the victim.
She said they learned of the attack when the school called the victim’s mother.
“We’ll go to the school to find out what happened. There’s a lot we don’t know,” she said.
Meanwhile, Reaction Unit South Africa’s (RUSA) spokesperson, Prem Balram, said the victim returned to school with a large knife lodged at the back of his neck after the attack.
Balram said RUSA was then contacted for emergency medical services at Trenance Park Secondary School.
“On arrival, the teenager was located lying in a prone position in the office area. A large kitchen knife was protruding from the back of his neck. He was bleeding profusely from his injury,” Balram said.
He said the victim, who was a Grade 10 pupil, told their responding officers that he was on his way home when he was attacked by three pupils, from the same school, who fled after the attack.
Balram added that a passerby took the pupil to back to his school.
thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za