Manish Kumar Singh, 13, was shot around 7 a m allegedly by Aneesh Singh, 14, (name changed) when the class was about to begin. Aneesh is missing. Both of them were Class VIII students.

``We heard the sound of firing and screaming by (sic) students. We rushed to the classroom and found Manish in a pool of blood,'' says Ashwani Kumar, a teacher.

Inspector of police B D Ram, who is investigating the case said Aneesh was ``a hooligan'' who was expelled on charges of indiscipline from a local school last year. Later, he joined the Shishu Mandir.

Manish was the class monitor. ``Aneesh never obeyed his directive and he had once threatened to kill him,'' says their classmate Binod Kumar, who was a witness to the shootout.

``Aneesh always used to bring a pistol in his bag. We were scared of him. But yesterday when he came, we asked him to show his pistol. He took it out, put a bullet in it, aimed thepistol at Manish's head and shot him,'' he told the police. Aneesh fled after the incident.

The post-mortem report revealed that .315 bore bullet was used to kill Manish. ``The bullet and pistol were country-made,'' says Ram.

Manish was the only son of Birendra Kumar Singh, an engineer posted at Muzaffarpur.