A nine-year-old boy has been charged after allegedly taking a knife to school.
Police were called to a school in the Fraserburgh area on Monday, after a teacher spotted the blade.
Fears have now been raised about what could have happened if the weapon had gone unnoticed.
Last night, Aberdeenshire Council said the matter was being dealt with as a “serious offence” by officers.
It is not known what type of knife the boy had.
But local councillor Brian Topping, the chairman of the town’s safety group, said “anything” could have happened.
“You just need to look at what happened to Bailey Gwynne,” he said.
“All the pupils and parents will be extremely concerned and I can appreciate that.
“We don’t know the purpose of the knife or why this pupil had it, but you should never be bringing a knife to school. It doesn’t send out the right message about safety in our schools.
“One thing I am happy about is that the teacher acted extremely swiftly and the police got involved. Hopefully this will be the end of the matter and that pupil realises the seriousness of the situation.
“There is a protocol in place and the teachers followed it to the letter, but anything could have happened – we just don’t know.”
Colleague Charles Buchan, who is a former teacher, added: “Aberdeenshire Council has robust policies on the safety of the children in the school system, and huge amounts of work have been done in learning from the previous incidents in Aberdeenshire over the last few years.”
The headteacher of the school sent letters to all parents following the discovery of the knife.
The note, headed “knife incident”, said: “Staff in school were made aware of the situation and acted quickly to ensure the knife was removed from the pupil and reported to the headteacher.
“The incident was reported to the police who are now dealing with the matter and are treating it as a serious offence.”
A spokesman for the council added: “We can confirm that a pupil at a school in Fraserburgh has been charged by police following an incident.
“As there is a live police investigation into this incident, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.”
Local Inspector Kevin Goldie said: “Police received a report of an incident on Monday, March 26, of a young boy taking a knife into school.
“Officers attended and a nine-year-old boy has been charged. A report will be submitted to the Youth Justice Management Unit.
“We are continuing to work closely with our partners in education to prevent such incidents from happening.”
This the latest incident involving a knife at a north-east school since the murder of Bailey Gwynne.
The 16-year-old was stabbed to death by a fellow pupil at Cults Academy in 2015.
And despite public outcry over his murder, bladed weapons continue to be found in schools across the region.
Just a year after the murder, a 10-year-old boy brandished a penknife to a classmate in Fraserburgh.
Staff at the school were only alerted when another pupil told their parent about the incident at lunchtime.
And in April 2016, just two months later, a video clip was released showing a 16-year-old outside Turriff Academy with a knife tucked into his trousers.
The video, which appears to show pupils arranging for a fight to take place, was condemned by local councillors at the time.
The teen was subsequently handed a community payback order at court for the offence.
More recently, a schoolboy brandished a knife to another in a fight on the grounds of Peterhead Academy last June.
The situation was only calmed when other students stepped in to restrain him until teachers could arrive.
And this year, a five-year-old boy was caught with a blade at an Aberdeen school last month.
The drama followed an incident in January, when an eight-year-old at another city school was charged with threatening and abusive behaviour after taking a knife from the school’s canteen.
Aberdeen City Council has said it will continue to review its knife crime policies.
