UK pupil died of single stab wound to heart

Schoolboy Luke Walmsley died of a single stab wound to the heart, British police revealed today.

Luke, 15, was stabbed at Birkbeck School, in North Somercotes, near Louth, Lincolnshire, UK, yesterday morning.

A 15-year-old fellow pupil was still being questioned at Skegness police station today.

At a press briefing this morning Chief Superintendent Phil Carter, of Lincolnshire police, said: “We can now confirm that the victim from yesterday’s incident was 15-year-old Luke Walmsley, who lived with his family in North Somercotes.

“The post-mortem examination carried out last evening by Home Office pathologist Dr Al Alusiu established that Luke died from a single stab wound to the heart and we are treating the incident as murder.

“The incident happened about 10am in one of the corridors of the school, near the science laboratory.

“Teachers gave him first aid and the efforts to save his life were taken over by paramedics and then the air ambulance took him to hospital at Grimsby, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later.

“We have recovered a knife but we are not prepared to release any description of it.”

The officer continued: “The 15-year-old boy who was arrested at the school continues to be detained at Skegness police station.”

The officer said that the scenes of crime examination would continue today and if necessary into tomorrow.

He added: “We will liaise with the headmaster and education authority as to when the school can reopen.”

The stabbing was an “almost unbelievable” tragedy, the school’s governors said today.

Violence in the classroom or the playground had never been an issue before, said John Stevens, chairman of the governors of Birkbeck School.

“This is so out of character that it’s almost unbelievable that it should happen in our school,” Mr Stevens told BBC Breakfast.

He said serious violence “had never been an issue” in the school.

“Obviously there have been the odd occasions when there’s been a little bit of, say, bullying, but there has never been anything of this scale, it’s never worried us.

“There’s never been any suggestion … that we would have something so serious and devastating as this.”

Luke was flown to Grimsby Hospital by air ambulance after yesterday morning’s incident, but was later pronounced dead.