Two children aged 10 and 11 were in custody today after a boy was left with life-threatening head injuries and another was slashed with a knife.
The critically-injured boy, aged 11, was found semi-conscious at the bottom of a ravine while the nine-year-old with knife wounds was found wandering along a street “dazed” and covered in blood, witnesses said.
Police stopped two boys near the scene in Edlington, South Yorkshire, who were being questioned by officers today.
The 11-year-old victim was airlifted to Sheffield Children’s Hospital where his condition was described as critical but stable. Last night he was showing signs of improvement and had been taken off a ventilator.
Police were called at around 2.20pm on Saturday after the nine-year-old was found in Auburn Road by a member of the public. He was taken to Doncaster Royal Infirmary and had surgery on an arm.
It is thought the pair may have been attacked with a brick and slashed with a knife.
People living near the Brick Ponds area of Edlington, a former mining village, described how the younger boy was seen wandering along the street covered in blood.
Jean Wright (68) said: “My husband saw him walking past the outside of our house and he was covered in what my husband thought was red paint. When he went out he saw it was blood.
“We brought him in and my husband calmed him down. He had a big gash on his arm and he was covered in blood on his head. He was shaking very badly and going into shock. We managed to get his name out of him and my husband told me to call an ambulance.”
The youngster told them that he and the other boy, who appears to be his uncle, had been riding bikes and were beaten up. He also said the older boy could not see, and Mrs Wright and her husband Derek (70) immediately alerted police.
Mr Wright described how his son Ian found the 11-year-old on the edge of a stream, lying face down with his arms outstretched covered in dried mud and blood. He waited with him until the police arrived as the youngster drifted in and out of consciousness.