Teacher held for pupil's 'attempted murder'

A science teacher arrested after a schoolboy was left with serious head injuries is being held on suspicion of attempted murder, police in the UK said today.

Peter Harvey is also being questioned about alleged assaults on two other pupils during the same incident at All Saints’ Roman Catholic School in Mansfield yesterday.

Officers were called to the school after paramedics arrived to find the 14-year-old pupil in a pool of blood at the entrance to a classroom in the science block.

Sources said he had suffered a number of very serious head injuries and there was grave concern for his life last night.

Although he has not undergone surgery, the boy’s condition stabilised and his parents were with him at his bedside.

Nottinghamshire Police confirmed that a weapon was used in the attack.

Parents at the school gates this morning said the 14-year-old was allegedly hit with a weight.

Police said the two other children who were assaulted in the same alleged attack were well enough to return home last night.

Officers refused to say whether the boy and girl, both 14, had leapt to their classmate’s defence.

The class was having a science lesson when it appears a row erupted between the boy and the teacher in the classroom. It is alleged the assault then took place.

The blood-spattered classroom was forensically examined by officers and has reopened, although it is understood lessons are not being taught in it.