This is the moment a white British boy is arrested by armed police after a teenage girl pupil was stabbed at school.

Teachers barricaded their pupils into classrooms using cabinets and tables while a knifeman was on the run for more than an hour after the stabbing at Thorpe St Andrew School, near Norwich.

The school was plunged into lockdown as armed police rushed to the scene at around 10.24am as terrified pupils were told to hide and turn off their phones.

Police drones were also on the scene as officers searched for the suspect, who was thought to have fled after jumping over a fence.

Officers arrested a 15-year-old boy – who police initially said was 16 – on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent at around 11.30am and took him to Wymondham Police Investigation Centre for questioning.

After pupils were released from school, one 13-year-old girl described how she had been doing art when the alarm at the school went off, and a teacher told them to get under desks.

The girl, who was with her mother, said: ‘A girl was walking back from the toilets and this guy came and stabbed her.

‘A teacher moved a cabinet in front of a door in year seven, I was told. We were told to go into our room.

‘The alarm was on the whole time. I was told once that was a different alarm from the fire alarm and we had never heard it before. It was a lockdown alarm.’

‘The teacher told us to relax. He had the radio to his ear the whole time.

‘We were then taken into the school to line up. That’s when I heard that some people saw [the stabbing].

‘They said they saw a girl with blood running down her back.’

The girl’s mother said: ‘There are a lot of theories going around about why it happened. Some are saying he had a connection to her but there’s also a theory that there’s no connection.

‘There’s no knowledge of her knowing him.’ 

The woman’s teenage son is also a pupil at the school. He said: ‘The alarms went off and we were told to go under the tables. The doors were closed. 

‘The school was barricaded. A few people moved cabinets in front of the doors.

‘If you were already in a class, you were told to stay in the class. If you were walking about you were told to get into the nearest class and make sure you were safe.’

Another student said they saw a girl ‘covered in blood’ and worried pupils were texting each other between classrooms.

The photographs of the boy’s arrest were taken by a woman who was walking her dog,  just metres from the site.

One pupil, Letizia Brister, 16, said the school bell started ringing at about 10.20 and did not stop.

She said: ‘We shut the door and locked it and then pushed a table against it so we were barricaded in.

‘We did not know what was going on but we felt very safe.’

Her father, Leon Brister, said: ‘The communication from the police and the school was dreadful but Letizia said the protocol in the school was great and she felt safe, which is the main thing. 

‘It just didn’t come out to the parents.’ 

He said his first communication from the school was ‘just as the kids were dispersing, basically’, and described it as ‘two and a half hours of anguish just waiting, virtually being kept in the dark with no information’.

‘When you’re standing outside and your flesh and blood is inside, you need to be kept in the loop a little bit better,’ he said.

Around 100 parents arrived at the school grounds after hearing the reports on social media, pleading with police for more information.

 ‘Just f*****g let the kids out,’ one parent shouted at officers.

Another said: ‘If my son is under a table and someone’s coming with a knife, I want him to be aware they’re coming.’

One pupil who was able to make contact with their family sent a text reading ‘I am very scared’, while another sent a message saying they ‘just want to go home’.

The teenage girl, believed to be a Year 10 pupil and aged between 14 or 15, has been taken to the hospital with ‘minor injuries’. 

Other schools in Norfolk were also understood to be keeping children inside over lunchtime, while Thorpe St Andrew School remained in lockdown.

Darren Evans, a father whose daughter is in year eight, told the Eastern Daily Press: ‘The communication from the school has been shocking.

‘If it were not for Facebook and the news, I would have had no idea what was going on.

‘I last heard from my daughter an hour ago. There’s been a total lack of communication.’

Another parent added: ‘To hear nothing from the school, it’s terrifying. Your mind sort of starts wheeling, you’ve got kids in the school, you don’t know what they want.

‘To have no information whatsoever about what was going on, with all this going on in the world right now, your mind instantly goes to the worst.

‘You automatically assume the worst, and think something horrendous has happened. I mean, it has. You automatically think it’s something a hell of a lot worse.’

One teacher at the school said they had been told to stay in the classroom with pupils, telling ITV News Anglia: ‘One of the things you practice, but never think you’ll do’.

Teachers used items such as cabinets and tables to barricade classroom doors, as the school was under lockdown for almost three hours.

One parent, Adam Howlett, told the news outlet that he had still not heard from his daughter, despite hearing from his son who is still locked in his classroom.

He said: ‘When it comes to your child even minor injuries are terrifying. You don’t expect to come to school and get injured. I’m just waiting to find out some news and put my mind at rest.’ 

Another parent, Shantelle Taylor, said she was ‘absolutely fuming’ to hear about the incident through a friend and not through the school.

‘I have managed to get hold of my daughter even though she’s been told she is not even allowed to message me to tell me she’s okay which I think is absolutely ridiculous,’ she said.

An alarm was still ringing out across the school just before 1pm, however, a member of the security staff at the school told parents waiting outside ‘don’t worry, everyone is now safe’, the BBC reports.

The first pupils were let out of classrooms at around 1.20pm to be reunited with their parents, while students who are unable to leave now will be held in the school hall.

Police today said the stabbing was ‘not believed to be linked’ to reports of anti-semitic chants at an under-15 football match which took place at the school last week.

Last week, Jewish teenagers claimed they were told to ‘go back to the gas chambers’ and called ‘dirty Zionists’ by baying spectators at a football tournament at the school. 

They also heard repeated chants of ‘Jews’ and slurs made against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while one mixed-race boy alleged he was called a ‘N***** Jew’ by the crowd during the quarter-final of an Under-15s national football tournament on March 5.

One boy alleged he was called a ‘monkey’ – a term that has been used by Islamic extremists as a slur against Jewish people.

Students from Jewish Free School (JFS) in London told the Daily Mail they were left feeling ‘threatened’, ‘hurt’ and ‘ashamed to be Jewish’ after hearing the offensive remarks, which they say began from the moment the team starting warming up on the pitch at Thorpe St Andrew School.

They allege staff ‘didn’t seem to care’ after the JFS pupils raised their concerns and instead allowed the abuse to continue.

It is understood the spectators comprised mainly Thorpe St Andrew students.

The school, which was rated Good in its 2025 Ofsted inspection, is an 11-to-18 mixed secondary school which also includes a sixth form. 

A statement from Broad Horizons Education Trust, of which the school is a part, said: ‘We have clear procedures in place and our staff acted swiftly, with the whole school going into lockdown with children staying in their classroom with their teacher. 

‘One of our students was injured and is now being treated in hospital for minor injuries. 

‘This has obviously been a distressing experience for our whole community and our focus now is on making sure all students feel supported as we begin to understand what happened.’

Norwich North MP Alice Macdonald described the incident as both ‘incredibly serious and deeply alarming’.

Posting on X, she wrote: ‘Immediately, we need to give the police time to ensure that every child and adult at the school is safe.

‘My thoughts right now are with all of them, especially the victim who has been taken to hospital, and their families who will be extremely worried.

‘My office is trying to get the latest information to understand exactly what has happened. I will keep you updated as I learn anything.’ 

A Norfolk Police spokesperson said: ‘Police were called to a school on Laundry Lane, Thorpe St Andrew at 10.24am this morning following reports that a teenage girl had been stabbed.

‘The road was closed whilst emergency services attended the scene including fire and ambulance. The victim was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

‘A white British 15-year-old boy was arrested nearby, on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He has been taken to Wymondham Police Investigation Centre for questioning. He remains in custody.

‘The road reopened at around 2pm. There are multiple police cordons in place in and around the school.

‘Officers will be conducting reassurance patrols both at the school and in the area over the coming days.

‘This incident is not linked to a hate crime reported at the same school last week.’