LONDON - A TEACHER at a school in Nottinghamshire has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder a teenage pupil and assaulting two other children, police said on Thursday.

The 14-year-old boy was taken to hospital with serious head injuries after an incident in a classroom at All Saints' Roman Catholic School in Mansfield on Wednesday morning.

Police said there were initial great concerns about the boy's condition but he is now said to be stable, although still serious. A 49-year-old teacher from the school is now being quizzed by detectives on suspicion of attempted murder and two counts of assault.

'It is appropriate to say he has been arrested on suspicion of assault of two further children at the time of the original incident,' Detective Superintendent Adrian Pearson told reporters. 'I can say that, allegedly as part of the incident, a weapon was used against the child. We are investigating exactly what did happen.'

The other two children who were allegedly assaulted did not need hospital treatment, he said.

'The school have been working very closely with us to cooperate and to gain the full assistance of the children who were witnesses to what took place,' Pearson said.

On its website, the school said it had been a Performing Arts College since 2002 and had been described as 'rapidly improving' in a 2009 Ofsted inspection.

'All Saints' School is a lively, Catholic comprehensive school with a very special, warm ethos which is recognised by all who visit,' the headteacher said on the website.

Supt Pearson said the incident was out of character for the school.

'It's a school where people send their children from a wide catchment area. There have been no similar incidents before,' he said. -- REUTERS