A 9-year-old boy suffered a serious head wound of about 20 centimeters and a fractured skull in a knife attack on his way home from school in central Japan, local authorities said Wednesday. Police arrested a teenager on the spot.

Firefighters received an emergency call from a woman at around 3:50 p.m. Tuesday saying she had found the boy lying on a road in Fujieda in Shizuoka Prefecture, about 300 meters from Takasu Minami Elementary School.

Some other pupils who were on their way home with the victim fled after the attack and ran back to the school, the local education board said, adding that a knife was later found at the scene.

Teachers from the school hurried to the site, where a youth carrying a hammer approached them. They backed off as he ran to the school, but then managed to overwhelm him there and handed him over to police, according to the board in the city of Fujieda.

The police arrested the 18-year-old juvenile for trespassing on school premises and have launched an investigation into the attack.

The teenager has told the police that he had been "bullied" in the past, according to an investigative source.

A day after the attack, which sent shockwaves through the local community, the education board convened an emergency meeting, attended by elementary and junior high school principals, to discuss necessary measures.

(A police officer keeps watch as children head to school in the morning)

"I feel strong resentment toward the occurrence of the painful incident," Tadashi Nakamura, head of the board, said. "We will renew our commitment to building a school where children can study with a sense of security."

The attack occurred at a time when local authorities in many parts of Japan are studying ways to ensure the safety of pupils after a 7-year-old girl was killed on her way home from school in Niigata in May.

In March last year, a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl was killed on her way to school in Chiba Prefecture.

One woman living close to the scene of the latest attack said she had told children who were playing nearby to come into her home to stay safe when she heard the sirens of ambulances and police cars, and saw the teachers running around.

"It scares me to think of my own child being attacked," she said.

A 78-year-old man said, "There have been several incidents in which children have been attacked. But I'm surprised that one has occurred in our neighborhood."