scrawlings & scratchings, murmurings and mumblings

OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian was credited Friday with foiling a 16-year-old Briton's plot to firebomb a high school in southeastern England by reporting the boy's online threat to police, said a local paper.

Montreal resident J.P. Newfeld was logged onto an Internet chat forum over breakfast on Tuesday, when he spotted the threat to burn down Attleborough High School in Norfolk with 950 students inside, said the daily Globe and Mail.

Newfeld notified the Norfolk Constabulary, who detained the boy outside the school, carrying a jug of fuel, matches and a knife. He was charged with threatening to carry out a criminal act.

"You don't take stuff like that lightly especially with all the school shootings that seem to happen on a yearly basis," Newfeld told the Globe and Mail.

The boy had posted his threat on Newgrounds.com, a website for sharing music and animations. "Today, at 11:30 GMT I will attack my school with arson and other forms of violence. Those bastards will pay," he wrote.

The Globe and Mail reported Newfeld chatted with the boy online after notifying police in a bid to stall him.