Yellow police tape surrounded a pile of torn clothes, a grimy grey sock and an abandoned knapsack in a laneway near an east-end Toronto high school — possessions of a teenager fatally stabbed there Tuesday.

A police officer watches over the cordoned-off laneway where a teenager was found dying of stab wounds.
(CBC)

The 16-year-old was rushed to hospital after he was stabbed in the stomach behind Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute about 12:20 p.m. Tuesday, but died at Sunnybrook hospital a short time later.

Police said the attack did not take place on school property, but students say the laneway behind the Lawrence Avenue East and Kennedy Road area school was a well-used shortcut.

One unidentified student said he came across the fatally wounded teen.

"We turn around the corner and we just see a guy laying straight down on the ground and his friend there yelling at people, 'Call the cops, call the cops, call the ambulance!'"

Police have not gone public with the victim's identity, pending notification of the next of kin.

Many students said they didn't know the teen's name since he had just transferred to the school this year.

Neighbours not surprised

Neighbours told CBC News they were not surprised by the stabbing, saying there is a lot of rival gang activity in the lane where the incident occurred.

An abandoned knapsack was among the items found at the scene.
(CBC)

Investigators are looking for a mid-1990s blue Honda car, possibly one that is souped up, that was seen speeding away from the area.

"There's a reasonable chance we're dealing with young offenders," Toronto police Det. Sgt. Gary Grinton said.

Classes at the school were set to proceed as scheduled, according to a Tuesday statement posted on the school's website by the principal.

In May, Jordan Manners, 15, was shot and killed inside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in northwest Toronto, a slaying that prompted increased security measures at two Toronto high schools when classes resumed last week.

Winston Churchill was not one of the schools to have security stepped up.

At the time, Toronto District School Board director Gerry Connelly said she did not "want to turn our schools into fortresses."