A TEENAGER armed with a knife chased two other youngsters through shops and to a college which triggered it going into lockdown.

Joseph Alacorte got into a row with two others people at the Sheepen Road Retail Park in Colchester where he produced a three inch flick knife.

He then made slashing motions and began chasing the two other people through the shops.

The pair managed to take refuge in one of the stores before Alacorte caught up with them and they retreated to nearby Colchester Institute and reported they had been threatened.

College bosses instigated their lockdown measures preventing anyone from entering or leaving.

Alacorte, now 18, gave up the chase but was arrested at Colchester North Station later that day after being recognised on CCTV.

No knife was found on him, but police found that he had dumped it in a bin on the platform.

Alacorte, of Wickham Road, Witham, admitted threatening someone with a blade when he appeared at Colchester Magistrates’ Court.

Fred Batstone, mitigating, said Alacorte had matured hugely since the incident in October last year after receiving a youth referral order for a separate incident and that he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder having been stabbed himself.

“At the time of the offence he had not had that assistance,” he said.

“He had the knife which he carried because of the unfortunate experience he had shortly before.

“He has completely changed between then and now.”

Magistrates decided they did not have sufficient powers to sentence Alacorte even when factoring in his age at the time of the offence and early guilty plea and committed him to Chelmsford Crown Court.