SAFETY notices have been erected along a Winchester college fence where a boy was impaled earlier this month.

Daniel Howie, 13, had to undergo emergency surgery after he was skewered on the fence while taking a short cut to his home in Hatherley Road.

Principal Neil Hopkins said he was shocked and horrified by the accident and denied that city councillors had alerted it to the dangers, and added: “No councillor has ever been in touch with us about the railings.”

Mr Hopkins said the railings have been there for as long as anyone can remember and possibly date back to when the college was first built as a school in 1899.

The college is checking if they are a “heritage asset”

with Winchester City Council.

In the short-term, a gate near the railings is being kept open while the college decides what should be done.

Local residents have called for the railings to have their spikes removed.

The section of fence that had to be removed by firefighters to allow Daniel to go to hospital has now been welded back into place.