Police were hunting a teenage suspect on Tuesday after two boys aged 12 and 13 were stabbed at a school in north-west London, in an incident that prompted an emergency response and the temporary lockdown of the site, authorities said.
Officers were called at about 12.40pm on 10 February to a school on Bacon Lane in Brent after reports that a 13-year-old pupil had been stabbed, the Metropolitan Police said. “At the scene, officers were made aware of a 12-year-old boy who had also been stabbed,” a police spokesperson said. Both were taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service and their conditions were not immediately known. (LBC)
Police said a suspect had been identified but had not been located, describing him as a teenage boy. “Urgent enquiries are ongoing to locate him,” the force said. (Sky News)
Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams, who leads policing in north-west London, said the incident would cause “considerable concern” locally and that extra officers had been deployed. “We want to reassure local students, parents and local residents that we have deployed significant resources to the area and are doing everything we can to locate the suspect,” he said, adding: “Our thoughts are with the injured boys and I want to thank the paramedics and doctors who are providing them both with care. We’ll provide further updates when we can.” (LBC)
The school identified by local reporting as Kingsbury High School told parents and carers it was dealing with a “serious incident” and was working with the relevant authorities. It said the situation was “now under control” and that it had already spoken directly with the parents and carers of the students involved. “We understand that this will be concerning,” the school said, adding that it was not possible to enter or leave the site while the response continued and that it would provide further updates when confirmed information was available. (LBC)
The incident took place in the London Borough of Brent, an area with a large secondary-school population and several schools clustered around residential streets and parks. Bacon Lane is associated with the lower-school site of Kingsbury High School, which operates across two nearby campuses, according to publicly available school information. (Wikipedia)
The stabbing comes amid continued concern about violence involving knives among young people in London and other UK cities, even as the latest national figures show a decline in recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments. The Office for National Statistics said offences involving knives or sharp instruments in England and Wales fell by 9% to 50,430 in the year ending September 2025, compared with 55,149 a year earlier. (Office for National Statistics)
In London, the Metropolitan Police publishes separate monitoring on knife-enabled crime. A statistical bulletin released in late 2025 showed that knife-enabled offences in the capital had been below pre-pandemic levels in several measures, though the police noted variations by offence type and area and that incidents still remain a significant public safety challenge. (met.police.uk)
Health data also underlines the harm caused by sharp-object violence. A Commons Library briefing, drawing on NHS Digital data, reported 3,500 hospital “episodes” in England in 2024/25 for assault by a sharp object, down on the previous year, while still representing thousands of serious injuries requiring treatment.
Local authorities in Brent have previously tracked knife crime and youth violence through community safety partnerships. A Safer Brent Partnership report covering 2024 said the borough recorded 565 knife crime offences that year, slightly lower than 2023, while also noting pressures linked to serious violence and the importance of prevention work among under-25s.
On Tuesday, police did not give details about the circumstances of the attack, including whether the suspect and victims were known to each other, the exact location within the school grounds, or what prompted the violence. There was no immediate information on the type of weapon used, whether it had been recovered, or whether any other injuries had been reported.
Police and school leaders focused their initial statements on reassurance and on the operational response, indicating that safeguarding and controlled release procedures were being used as the scene was secured. LBC reported that emergency procedures were put in place and access to the site was restricted after the stabbings, with students released once the situation was brought under control.
The Met’s statement and the school’s message suggested a fast-moving incident during the school day, with officers and ambulance crews attending and the school limiting movement in and out of the premises while enquiries continued. Williams said further updates would be provided, but no timetable was given.
For families and residents in the area, the incident is likely to renew anxieties about school safety and the circulation of knives among teenagers. In recent years, successive governments, police forces and councils have promoted a mixture of enforcement and early-intervention measures, including youth outreach programmes, targeted patrols around transport hubs, weapon sweeps, and education initiatives aimed at discouraging carrying knives.
The stabbing also highlights the difficulty of rapidly containing violence once it erupts in busy public settings such as schools. Even in boroughs where overall knife crime trends are flat or falling, isolated incidents can have significant effects on communities, particularly when they involve children.
Police urged anyone with information to come forward, though no public appeal line or incident reference number was included in the initial statements carried by broadcasters and local outlets. As of Tuesday afternoon, officers said the suspect remained at large and that enquiries were ongoing.
