Lucky to be alive school security officer Kariim Wales told last night how he believed he was going to die after being stabbed several times by a former student.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette from his hospital bed, newlywed Mr. Wales relived the moments leading up to the attack on Wednesday, when he was trying to track down a prowler wandering around CedarBridge Academy.

He said at one point during the knife attack, he slipped on his own blood from stab wounds and found himself on the floor with his attacker sat on top of him.

“I was weakening at that point,” he said.

“I was talking to him - trying to reason with him. I looked him straight in the eye. I told him he did not need to do it.''

He added: ‘'I told him to leave and walk away, but he would not listen to reason. I thought his intention was to take me out.

“Once I had thought that, I said a quick prayer. I said, ‘Lord, get me out of this mess'. Then, from nowhere, I got sudden strength and pushed him off me.”

Mr. Wales, from Warwick, said he and other security officers at the school were looking for the trespasser after he was spotted in the building at about 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday, before the start of classes.

Mr. Wales said he realised the youth had gone into the Ruth Seaton James Auditorium, and so followed.

He said he believed he would be able to convince the youth, who was wearing a scarf around his face, to calmly leave the building. But once inside, he said he had to fight for his life as the attacker continuously lashed out with a knife, stabbing him in the neck, shoulder, back and head.

Mr. Wales said he had no idea he had been stabbed until the rush of blood streaming from his neck wound caused him to lose a grip on the attacker's arm as he tried to fend him off.

Moments later, the security officer actually slipped in his blood. The 30-year-old suffered a collapsed lung, has had staples put in his head to help repair wounds, one of his tonsils removed, and has had to undergo a tracheotomy to enable him to breathe.

After three days in the Intensive Care Unit at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, Mr. Wales was admitted to a general ward on Friday night, where he is expected to remain for the next few days.

The father-of-two said he believed he had been blessed and felt sure he would have died if not for the grace of God.

“I know that if I had not done something, I would have been dead,” said Mr. Wales.

“As I pushed him off me, he made one last attempt to stab me. That's when he stabbed me in the back.”

Mr. Wales said he pushed his assailant towards the emergency exit door, forcing both himself and the attacker outside, at the back of the school, near to the teachers' car park.

Mr. Wales said he managed to keep hold of the youth while a female teacher came to the rescue and managed to grapple the knife out of the attacker's hand.

Moments later, the knifeman ran off.

The security officer added: “I feel very blessed to be alive.”

However, he said he still plans to return to his job as a security officer at CedarBridge Academy once he is well enough to do so.

He added: “I plan to go back. I'm not going to let this discourage me. I will go back - I have a job to do.”

Mr. Wales' wife of four months, Kim, said she received a call informing her of the incident as she made her way to work on Wednesday morning. She immediately went to the hospital and waited for the ambulance to arrive with her husband.

She said: “When the ambulance came, a co-worker of Kariim's got out and said I had to be calm. She said all Kariim was worried about was his wife.

“That made me stay calm, but it was so upsetting because he was covered in blood and he could not speak. He looked really bad,” said Mrs. Wales

“By the end of Wednesday, I think I had had enough of crying and I got myself sorted out by that evening.

“But on Thursday the doctor said it was touch and go. We were very worried. He started to get a lot better by Friday and has done well since.

“The doctor told me my husband was a lucky man. The doctor said if the knife had gone into his neck in a little bit of a different angle, he would have been gone.

“He's been so fortunate. We have all been blessed.”

And Mr. Wales' mother Leonette Wales said she believed God had intervened. She said only that morning, just minutes before the attack, she had been praying with Sister Aberdeen from Somerset Seventh Day Adventist Church, and she had prayed for both her son and his wife.

She added: “I know the Holy Spirit intervened. It's only by the grace of God that my son is alive.”