Police hunt flame-thrower attack suspect

POLICE in Northern Ireland yesterday stepped up their hunt for a man who burst into a grammar school's exam room and sprayed pupils with an improvised flame-thrower.

Six boys were burned, three seriously, after the man rushed in and aimed a fireball at 30 teenagers sitting their final-year exams at Sullivan Upper School in Holywood, Co Down.

Royal Ulster Constabulary detectives believe the flame- thrower was a home-made device using a fire extinguisher which the attacker filled with a flammable liquid and ignited with a cigarette lighter.

The weapon, while simple, was horribly effective. Pupils scattered, frantically trying to extinguish their burning clothes. Others were hurt in a mad scramble to get away.

Yesterday, the three badly injured boys were being treated for burns at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. One, understood to have suffered 40 per cent burns to his body, was said to be very seriously ill but stable. The condition of the other two was described as serious but stable. One of the three has been named as Stephen Crossland, but the hospital would say only that all were being treated in the burns unit.

Other pupils less seriously injured were taken to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, Co Down. A spokesman there said that they had been discharged after treatment in the casualty ward.

An RUC spokesman said yesterday that the force was confident that Garnett Bell, 46, whom they wish to interview in connection with the attack, would be tracked down. The RUC took the unusual step of naming Mr Bell, a former pupil at the school, after he was recognised there. Neighbours describe him as 'an oddball'.

The hunt, co-ordinated by a senior detective, is focusing on Mr Bell's car, a silver Toyota Corolla with a number plate beginning with the letters DBZ, a spokesman said. The attacker fled the scene in a green Skoda car which he later abandoned.

A summer house that belonged to Mr Bell's brother, Leslie, 20 miles from the school in the fishing village of Portavogie, was destroyed by fire a few hours after the attack at the school.

Police described suggestions that the attacks were linked to a dispute between the brothers about their mother's will as speculative.

Sullivan Upper School's headteacher, John Young, said yesterday that he was determined that the school, which has an outstanding academic record, should not become a fortress. It will reopen on Monday, when exams will continue.

'We do not want a prison and, if it is a prison, I do not want to be a governor,' Mr Young told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'We have to be careful not to over-react. We have to recognise that this was a bizarre one-off event.

'While we will look at our security arrangements, we have to hold on very firmly to the understanding that schools have to be open places where access is very easy, and go on doing that. You cannot have 100 per cent protection.'

Mr Young said Mr Bell had left the school in the late Sixties. 'So he is a very former pupil. Everyone will be a good deal more comfortable when they have picked him up.'