Detectives are hunting for a teenage schoolboy after a teacher was stabbed in front of pupils in a classroom.

The 14-year-old boy allegedly attacked the male teacher with a knife smuggled into school.

A 50-year-old teacher at Dixons Kings Academy in Bradford was taken with stab wounds to the chest to hospital, where he remains and is said to be in a stable condition.

Teachers appealed for the schoolboy to hand himself in to police.

Speaking outside the school gates, the academy’s executive principal Nick Weller said: ‘It happened right at the beginning of the school day and there were some students who witnessed it. A few students witnessed it – in a classroom.

‘Those students have been interviewed by the police.

‘Obviously, it’s a very shocking thing for them to see. The general atmosphere in the school is very calm, quite orderly, we’re trying to keep to normal routines as much as possible.’

Mr Weller said there was nothing in school that suggested the attack was going to be launched.

He said: ‘I think there was some….the police are looking into the lead up to this incident, there was nothing in school that led up to it – there may have been other people outside the school who maybe knew something.’

Mr Weller said a member of staff is at the hospital with the teacher while counsellors are on site supporting pupils.

He confirmed the suspect is a pupil at the school and has been there a year.

Parents arrived at the school – which is next to the city’s ambulance station – to check if their children were OK.

Tahir Jamil emerged saying he had been reassured that his 15-year-old daughter was safe and meeting staff with around four other families.

‘They’ve explained everything to us now,’ he said.

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‘Two of the teachers came out and explained everything to us.

‘They didn’t tell us what teacher it was but now I’m satisfied. I wanted to take my daughter with me but they assured us that the school is safe.’

A number of uniformed police officers could be seen coming in and out of the school, which is about a mile-and-a-half from the city centre.

Mr Weller appealed to the suspect, who has not been named but is Asian with short dark hair, to hand himself in.

He said: ‘I think the best thing to do is obviously to give himself in and tell him to report to the police station because he will be caught and the sooner he does that, the better for him.’

Neil Miley, the school’s principal, said: ‘Staff were called very quickly and paramedics were called immediately into the school.’

Asked why they kept the school open, he said: ‘Because I think it’s important that we make sure there’s consistency for our students, as students need to be safe and secure.

‘And there’s support from staff on site, making sure our students are looked after, and they’ve responded with fantastic maturity.’

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said violence of any kind in schools is ‘totally unacceptable’, adding that her department is ‘ready and prepared to offer all necessary support’.

Detective Superintendent Simon Atkinson, of West Yorkshire Police, said: ‘We are conducting inquiries in the area to locate a suspect and I would like to reassure residents and staff that all necessary resources are being deployed to investigate this ongoing and clearly very serious incident.

‘We would like to hear from anyone who witnessed the incident or knows the whereabouts of the suspect.

‘At this stage we do not believe there is an ongoing risk to pupils or staff at the school.’

The attack comes a year after teacher Ann Maguire, 61, was stabbed to death by one of her pupils in a murder that shocked the country.

Will Cornick stabbed Mrs Maguire seven times from behind as she taught a Spanish class at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds on April 28 last year.

Cornick, who was 15 at the time, boasted to his friends he was going to kill her and winked to his classmate before he launched into the attack.

After the killing he told psychiatrists he ‘couldn’t give a s***’ and added: ‘Everything I’ve done is fine and dandy.’

The murder was branded a ‘monumental act of cowardice and evil’ and Cornick was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison before he is considered for release. But the judge, Mr Justice Coulson, warned him: ‘It’s quite possible that day may never come.’