A 13-YEAR-OLD Brisbane boy was last night charged with murder, after a 12-year-old schoolmate was stabbed to death in a bloody playground fight.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said security at schools would be reviewed following the tragedy, the second stabbing in a Brisbane school in a fortnight.
Year 8 student Elliot Fletcher sustained a fatal wound to the chest, inflicted by a 20cm fishing knife, during the altercation with a Year 9 boy at St Patrick's College, a prestigious Catholic school in the bayside Brisbane suburb of Shorncliffe.
The violence erupted in the school toilets about 8.15am, before classes commenced.
The fatally injured boy was rushed to hospital but could not be saved.
His alleged assailant was picked up by police soon afterwards in a nearby street, bleeding from a minor stab wound to the neck.
After being treated in hospital, the 13-year-old boy was last night charged with murder. He is due to appear in the Brisbane Children's Court today.
Friends of the dead boy and former St Patrick's students took to the Facebook website in their hundreds to pay tribute to a child said to have been good-natured and well-liked.
One posting described how the two boys had allegedly been feuding for some time.
Fletcher's death was "weird", a friend wrote, because he was "such a nice boy" and it was inconceivable he would "be on anyone's bad side".
Ms Bligh said the outcome of the police investigation would be reviewed in case safety at schools could be improved.
"I think it's fair to say that schools in Queensland are not like some of the schools we might see in some of the big cities in the US," Ms Bligh said. "We don't have a serious problem with children bringing implements and weapons to school. But when it does occur it can end in tragedy and that's what's happened today. We'll be certainly looking at the arrangements of school security as a result of this incident . . . if there are any lessons that will protect other students of course we will look at them."
The attack came only two weeks after a boy from Brisbane's St Joseph's College, in Gregory Terrace, was stabbed in the thigh. That incident, however, was out of the school grounds and involved a student from another school.
At St Patrick's, a special school assembly was called to tell students of yesterday's attack, then another to say that Elliott was in hospital, and a third to break the news he had died.
Throughout the morning, worried parents arrived to collect their sons, and students ran into the arms of their upset mothers and fathers.
St Patrick's is one of the smaller of Brisbane's well-established Catholic schools. Its alumni includes corruption-busting royal commissioner Tony Fitzgerald, Wallaby Drew Mitchell and musician Tex Perkins.
Principal Michael Carroll emerged from the school to read a short statement, in which he spoke of "a tragic loss of young life".
"Our thoughts and prayers remain with all affected by this terrible tragedy, particularly the parents of the deceased boy," he said.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said security at schools would be reviewed following the tragedy, the second stabbing in a Brisbane school in a fortnight.
Year 8 student Elliot Fletcher sustained a fatal wound to the chest, inflicted by a 20cm fishing knife, during the altercation with a Year 9 boy at St Patrick's College, a prestigious Catholic school in the bayside Brisbane suburb of Shorncliffe.
The violence erupted in the school toilets about 8.15am, before classes commenced.
The fatally injured boy was rushed to hospital but could not be saved.
His alleged assailant was picked up by police soon afterwards in a nearby street, bleeding from a minor stab wound to the neck.
After being treated in hospital, the 13-year-old boy was last night charged with murder. He is due to appear in the Brisbane Children's Court today.
Friends of the dead boy and former St Patrick's students took to the Facebook website in their hundreds to pay tribute to a child said to have been good-natured and well-liked.
One posting described how the two boys had allegedly been feuding for some time.
Fletcher's death was "weird", a friend wrote, because he was "such a nice boy" and it was inconceivable he would "be on anyone's bad side".
Ms Bligh said the outcome of the police investigation would be reviewed in case safety at schools could be improved.
"I think it's fair to say that schools in Queensland are not like some of the schools we might see in some of the big cities in the US," Ms Bligh said. "We don't have a serious problem with children bringing implements and weapons to school. But when it does occur it can end in tragedy and that's what's happened today. We'll be certainly looking at the arrangements of school security as a result of this incident . . . if there are any lessons that will protect other students of course we will look at them."
The attack came only two weeks after a boy from Brisbane's St Joseph's College, in Gregory Terrace, was stabbed in the thigh. That incident, however, was out of the school grounds and involved a student from another school.
At St Patrick's, a special school assembly was called to tell students of yesterday's attack, then another to say that Elliott was in hospital, and a third to break the news he had died.
Throughout the morning, worried parents arrived to collect their sons, and students ran into the arms of their upset mothers and fathers.
St Patrick's is one of the smaller of Brisbane's well-established Catholic schools. Its alumni includes corruption-busting royal commissioner Tony Fitzgerald, Wallaby Drew Mitchell and musician Tex Perkins.
Principal Michael Carroll emerged from the school to read a short statement, in which he spoke of "a tragic loss of young life".
"Our thoughts and prayers remain with all affected by this terrible tragedy, particularly the parents of the deceased boy," he said.
