A 20-year-old matric pupil was stabbed to death and three others hospitalised following a fight with pupils from other schools in Qhorha Village outside Dutywa, Eastern Cape police said on Wednesday.

The murdered man had just written an examination paper at Gwadana Senior Secondary School when he was killed in a fight on Tuesday afternoon, said Captain Jackson Manatha.

He said the boy, along with his schoolmates, boys from other schools and non scholars had gate-crashed a farewell function at the Gqukesi Junior Secondary School when the fight ensued.

"The cause of the quarrel is not known but teachers were forced to throw the fighting boys out of the school premises," said Manatha.

Once outside the school premises, schoolboys from Gqukesi and the scholars are alleged to have "attacked the Gwana schoolboys".

"During the course of the attack 20-year-old Siyamcela Gadlela of Gwadana Senior Secondary School was stabbed to death," he said.

Three other boys from Gadlela's school were also stabbed and were rushed to the Butterworth Hospital in critical conditions.

No one has been arrested and police are investigating a case of murder and three attempted murders.