A PUPIL at a leading public school is being treated in hospital after being badly beaten by a classmate in an end of term punch up.

The dormitory brawl left one of the classmates needing emergency surgery to remove his spleen after the fight at the £14,000-a-year Durham School.

Violence flared between the 18-year-old sixth-formers at 3am on Saturday after a barbecue.

It was the pupils' last official school day - but what should have been a day of celebration ended in near tragedy after a fight broke out.

The teenagers have not been named, but a parent of another pupil said: "It is terrible. The lad has been beaten to within an inch of his life.

"It's a very sad way to end a school year. This kind of thing just should not be allowed to happen."

The teenager is in Durham's University Hospital and is being treated for serious abdominal injuries.

Shocked classmates at the 335-pupil school phoned for an ambulance.

Deputy headteacher Derek Best said yesterday: "I can confirm there was an incident between two senior boys in one of the houses.

"Both of them are upper sixth so technically left the school on Saturday. One boy has gone home and the other boy is in hospital.

"I have written to the parents but the boy has had an operation so we shall be contacting him later to see when it is suitable to visit him.

"We obviously do not condone any violence, that should be clear."

The Durham City school is one of England's oldest independent schools, dating back to the fifteenth century.

Det Insp Mick Nail, of Durham CID, said: "We have now received a complaint of assault and an investigation is under way, although inquiries are at a preliminary stage.