Boy, 10 struck with stake

A boy fighting for his life after a schoolyard incident was struck in the head with a stake.

Fairfax Media has learned the 10-year-old suffered a puncture wound to his head at Invercargill’s Sacred Heart School about 8.30am on Friday, requiring surgery. He remains in an induced coma.

Police are investigating whether the incident was simply a playground accident or something sinister.

Investigators have remained tight-lipped on details surrounding the ‘‘tragic incident’’, but said they would release more information later .

The boy was taken to Southland Hospital with a head injury, but was later flown to Dunedin Hospital where he was placed in an induced coma after undergoing surgery.

Police were understood to be talking to his family on Sunday afternoon.

Fairfax has learned through a variety of sources that he suffered a puncture wound to his head after he was struck with a stake. Another pupil from the school was present.

There were witnesses, if any.

Sacred Heart School board of trustees chair Paul Brooks said he was unable to comment on the incident.

Brooks previously said the incident happened outdoors within school grounds, before classes started at 9am. He did not know if the injury was a result of an accident or a deliberate act.

‘‘That’s something I can’t , in all honesty, actually answer, and that’s why the police are investigating, because at the moment I couldn’t tell you if it was accidental or not,’’ Brooks said.

The boy’s maternal grandfather told the Herald on Sunday that the boy’s condition was an ‘‘hour-byhour’’ situation.

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