Catch Exception in PHP Constructor

Question

I'm trying to catch an Exception which may be thrown in a class constructor, but i can't figure why it is not working.

Here my code:

File #1

<?php
use Exception;
class MyClass {
    function __construct($x) {
        if($x < 1) { echo "ok";}
        else {
            throw new Exception ("ERROR!"); //throws error
        }
    }
}

File #2

<?php
include 'file1.php'
try {
    $y = new MyClass(3);
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
}

Now I expect to see a printed line telling me "ERROR!". Instead I get a

PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'ERROR!' in file1.php:7
Stack trace:
#0 file2(4):MyClass->__construct(3)
#1 {main}
thrown in file1.php on line 7

Any idea on what can it depend on?