Man Kills Child At School

Police: Man kills child at school

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- A man wearing a long coat with a hood killed an 8-year-old boy in a Dutch primary school corridor Friday. Police said they arrested a 22-year-old suspect and were questioning him.

The incident happened around 11:15 a.m. (1015GMT) at the Klim-Op School in the town of Hoogerheide, 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Amsterdam.

After teachers discovered the child and called police, "my colleagues found the lifeless body of a boy," said police spokesman Fred Stegman. He identified the victim as Jesse Dingemans and said he had "serious injuries to the throat area."

He gave no more details of exactly how the child was killed or what the motive might have been. Detectives combing the school for evidence had found no weapon, he said.

Local media reported that the boy was the son of a local bank manager.

"As far as is clear to me at the moment, there is no family relationship between the victim and his killer," Stegman added.

Early reports said the child's throat had been slashed, but Stegman refused to confirm the reports.

The identity of the suspect, who was arrested without struggle on a nearby street less than an hour after the killing, was not released.

Police said Jesse's classmates did not witness the slaying. They had been working elsewhere in the school and the victim apparently was killed when he returned to his classroom to fetch something.

"It does not appear that many children witnessed the incident," another police spokesman, Willem van Hooijdonk, said.

All the pupils were sent home after the killing and a crisis center was established at the town hall in nearby Woensdrecht.

"Everyone is terribly upset at the school," Van Hooijdonk said.

Few schools have strict security measures in place, in part because killings are extremely rare. The last case was in 2004, when a student shot his economics teacher in the head in a crowded cafeteria.

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That was from cnn.com. Maybe some of you have heard of this incident, i live about four miles from that school and know some kids who go to school there. This may be occurring more frequently in other countries than in holland, but this really hit me. Ive got a friend who has an 8-yr old brother and for a moment it scared the hell out of me.

Whats happening with the world, i wonder. It's getting closer and closer to my home, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.