HORROR IN THE PLAYGROUND AS TEACHERS 'STABBED'

A TEACHER was "slashed across the neck" as she bravely tried to stop an alleged knife attack on a pupil.

- Paul Jeeves

Terrified students scaled a 7ft perimeter fence to escape the incident at the end of the mid-morning break.

More than 1,000 pupils were put into classroom lockdown at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman, also known as Amman Valley in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, South-West Wales, as emergency services were alerted in a "code red" 999 call at 11.20am yesterday.

A second teacher, year seven head Fiona Elias, 48, was also hurt in the attack. Her injuries were said to be "superficial".

Police arrived and arrested a teenage girl on suspicion of attempted murder after she allegedly used a butterfly knife to carry out the assault.

Paramedics treated the two injured teachers and the pupil on the playground tarmac. Six medics carried the seriously injured teacher to an air ambulance that had landed on an adjacent playing field.

She was flown 70 miles to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and had emergency surgery.

Despite the severity of her injuries, they are not deemed to be life-threatening.

The injured pupil was given first aid before being taken to hospital along with the second member of staff, who was last night reported to be deputy headteacher Ms Elias.

Both of their wounds were not life-threatening and Fiona was discharged yesterday afternoon. Her father John Owen said: "Obviously I was extremely worried when I found out there had been an attack. She phoned me at about 3pm to say she had superficial wounds to her hand." It also emerged that a third hero teacher disarmed the schoolgirl allegedly "going mad" with a knife.

Plucky Darrel Campbell waded into the melee to wrestle a butterfly knife a type of folding pocket blade from the teenager, according to onlookers.