A 15-year-old North Sydney Boys High student brandishing a large knife has been Tasered by police during a tense stand-off that forced the prestigious selective school to go into lockdown.
Police were called to the school on Sydney’s north shore just before 1pm on Thursday. The boy had armed himself with what one witness described as a chef’s knife, following a fight with another student.
The school, which has claimed the number one spot in the Higher School Certificate for the past two years, was put into lockdown for an hour as police responded to the danger.
Dramatic footage obtained by Nine News shows six officers pursuing the student wearing a red apron through the school grounds, with police urging him to drop the knife and threatening to deploy their Tasers. The officers follow the teenager through the courtyard and onto a paved area, before he is eventually led out of the school by two officers.
“The 15-year-old was arrested, following a Taser deployment by police,” police said in a statement.
A plained clothes police officer holds the knife following the altercation with the boy.Credit: Nine News
Mathew Lyall, a tradesman who witnessed the incident while working on a roof behind the school, said the student looked to be “not in the right head space” and was “shaking his head a lot” as he walked around the campus.
“It was pretty confronting to be honest, because of the size of the knife … I assume it was a chef’s knife,” Lyall told Nine News.
The NSW Department of Education said the lockdown lasted one hour, ending at 1.30pm, and that no other students nor staff were harmed.
