A TEENAGER has pleaded guilty to stabbing a fellow pupil in the stomach during a lunchtime incident in a school canteen.

The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was queueing for her lunch in Testwood School, Totton before the 16-year-old punctured her stomach with a blade.

The boy admitted wounding with intent and possessing an offensive weapon during his hearing at Southampton Crown Court. 

Scores of parents took to social media express their shock at the incident, which happened during break-time at the school.

Angela Augustine, mother of Alastair McChrystal told the Echo: "I’m worried because my son is there, and he messaged me to say he felt sick. I hope the child’s alright.

"My son has got his GCSEs coming up. He is shaken by it. I am too.

"It’s one thing a fight happening, you expect that, but for a 15/16-year-old going in with a knife it makes you think, as a parent, is my child safe at the school?"

Relatives of a pupil said they saw the arrest of a young male close to the school.

The mother sent her daughter into the school to check her brother was okay, in reception she said she saw a girl who was disturbed and was waiting on her parent to collect her from school.

A year 7 pupil, interviewed with permission of his grandfather, told the Echo that after the incident his classroom had been locked by a teacher. That the buildings were locked down was denied by the school last night.

He said he saw the section where the incident happened get taped off during break-time, but he didn’t know why this was until he was told by a teacher at the beginning of third period.

It was in class when he heard the victim was the ex-girlfriend of the pupil believed to have committed the offence.

He said that a teacher was going into each classroom to tell pupils that armed police would be walking through the school. He said the teacher came back to update the children that the boy had been caught and the girl was alright around mid-day.

The boy added: “We were all worried until we were told they had caught the boy and the girl was alright.”

At the time of the incident on March 26, a spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary said the female student suffered a puncture wound to her abdomen but her condition was not considered life-threatening.

The boy appeared via videolink and will next appear at a mention hearing the same court on July 4.