Former pupil, 13, accused of stabbing two boys in school in North London was arrested after he was seen at a mosque

A former pupil accused of stabbing two boys during a knife attack at a school in north London was arrested after he was seen inside a mosque.

The schoolchildren, aged 12 and 13, remain in hospital after the attack at Kingsbury High School in Brent which unfolded at lunchtime on Tuesday.

The 13-year-old suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder later that day. 

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Detective Chief Superintendent Helen Flanagan, of Counter Terrorism Policing London said: ‘Yesterday, Tuesday, 10 February at 12:39hrs, police were called to Kingsbury High School in NW9, Brent to reports that two students had been stabbed.

‘As you know, emergency services attended and two victims – both boys aged 12 and 13 – were taken to hospital with serious injuries. We now know that their injuries are thankfully not thought to be life-threatening, but they both remain in hospital in a stable condition.

‘From our enquiries so far, we believe the suspect arrived at the school at around 12:30hrs. We know that the suspect is a former student at the school.

‘Having entered the school, he proceeded up to a first-floor classroom – he enters the classroom and we believe he sprays a substance towards a pupil as he enters through the door.

‘Although no particular injuries were reported to us in relation to this, and we do not believe the spray to have been noxious, we are treating the boy who was sprayed as a victim in this case as well, and we are supporting both him and his family.

‘The suspect has then attacked another pupil, a 13-year-old boy, in the classroom, stabbing him and the suspect has then left running down the hallway and stairs. As he is leaving, he then attacks another victim, a 12-year-old boy, stabbing him before running off and away from the school.

‘Emergency services were called and the victims were both taken to hospital for urgent care. Thankfully, both the victims are now in stable condition, and we have specialist family liaison officers assigned to support the victims and their families.

‘Armed police attended the school and a manhunt was immediately stood up to try and locate and detain the suspect as quickly as possible.

‘While urgent enquiries were being made to try and locate the suspect, police were called by a member of the public at approximately 16:15hrs over concerns of a child who had been seen at a mosque in NW10.

‘Officers attended shortly after and arrested the 13-year-old boy on suspicion of attempted murder and he remains in custody.

‘I must add at this point that we do not believe the suspect has any particular connection to the mosque. At this stage, we think it may have been coincidental he ended up in that area, and those at the mosque have been incredibly supportive of our investigation.

‘CTP London has taken the lead for this investigation, and clearly that is because at the outset there was concern that the attack may have had some kind of terrorism motivation.

‘In terms of the investigation, currently we are keeping an open mind as to any motivation. We are exploring a number of different potential motivations for the attack, and at this time, as was the case yesterday evening, the incident has not been declared a terrorist incident.

‘As part of the investigation, we have carried out searches across three premises; two addresses connected to the suspect, as well as the mosque near to where the suspect was arrested.

‘We also have around 30 to 40 witnesses whom we are interviewing and getting accounts from. This is an extremely delicate process given the young ages of many of the witnesses from the school, and we are using highly trained and specialist officers to carry these out.

‘We have also recovered a large amount of CCTV footage from the school, we have seized devices and we are carrying various forensic enquiries, so there are a number of strands to the investigation that are being progressed at this time.

‘In terms of the suspect, we are aware there is much speculation online around the nationality and ethnicity. We can confirm that he is a British national who was born in and lives in the UK.

‘We are particularly mindful that this is a child, however, and we will not be releasing or confirming any further details about him that could risk his identification.

‘The suspect remains in custody, and our focus is now to gather as much evidence as possible to help progress the investigation.

‘I can also confirm that, at this stage, we are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident. Based on what we know now it appears he was acting alone.’

Shocked students took to social media last night to reveal how the stabbings took place in a science classroom.

One girl revealed on TikTok: ‘I saw this happen, blood all over the floor wondering ‘is that paint?’ and then seeing a boy with blood all over his neck covering it with his hands.

‘I thought maybe fake blood or just a science or art project until the fire alarm rang and then I knew oh we are cooked.’

Another said: ‘It was so bad there was screaming, crying and a lot of blood and the ppl who saw the whole thing happen were terrified and it was in the middle of lunch too.

‘The whole school was standing outside for three hours with no coats, no nothing. It was so cold and yeah I’m never forgetting this ever.’

He said: ‘The attacker came in with his old KHS uniform and didn’t get suspected by teachers .

‘He went after the 13 year-old because long ago they fought and the youth with the knife got expelled. He came back to this school and found the boy he’d fought with and pepper sprayed the teacher and stabbed the boy, in the stomach I think.

‘Then some person in Year 7, who was 12 yrs old, was walking by the class and he saw what happened and ran and pulled the fire alarm.’

The 32-year-old brother of a girl who attends the school said his sister was in a nearby classroom when the attack took place.

Photos from the scene showed a number of emergency vehicles swarming around the school in the aftermath of the incident.

The site was on lockdown earlier on Tuesday, with no one able to enter or leave the grounds.

Kingsbury High School is an academy school serving children aged 11 to 18, with both upper and lower sites.

According to the latest Department for Education information, it has 1,997 pupils.

It traces its origins to Kingsbury County School, which opened in 1925 in a building which had been the office of the former Aircraft Manufacturing Company. It moved premises in 1932.

Alumni include Wham’s George Michael, jazz musician Courtney Pine, Floyd Steadman, the first black captain of the Saracens rugby team, and writer Ekow Eshun.

The London Ambulance Service said they were called at 12.41pm to reports of a stabbing on Bacon Lane.

They added: ‘We sent resources to the scene including ambulance crews, incident response officers, an advanced paramedic, a paramedic from our tactical response unit and a clinical team manager.

‘We also dispatched a trauma team in a car from London’s Air Ambulance.

‘We treated two patients in total. We took one patient to hospital and the other as a priority to a major trauma centre.’