POLICE said a 12-year-old child has been found carrying a knife similar to the one used to kill a schoolboy.

Police in North Yorkshire said the blue-handled knife, with a 6cm serrated blade, was similar to that used by Lincolnshire boy Alan Pennell when he fatally stabbed 14-year-old Luke Walmsley at Birkbeck Secondary School, North Somercotes. He was jailed last month.

Police in Harrogate fear other youngsters could be carrying similar knives.

The weapon was handed to police by a concerned relative.

Sergeant Mark Gee, of Harrogate police, said that although there was not an amnesty, the public could anonymously hand over knives or other offensive weapons at Harrogate station.

The knife was not a flick-knife, but had a retractable blade. Sergeant Gee said: "We believe in this case that the knife was being carried around to show off with. But if knives like this are suddenly used in anger, they become a lethal weapon.

"We will arrest and prosecutive people who do carry them."

The knife was handed to a community beat officer in the Bilton area of the town.

Police are not revealing if the knife was carried by a boy or girl.

Sgt Gee said: "What concerns us is that someone as young as 12 has been carrying a knife like this."