Boy, 13, arrested after bomb threats force six schools to close

A 13-year-old boy has been arrested over a series of bomb hoaxes that saw six schools close.

Hampshire Police said the teenager was arrested on suspicion of communicating false information by means of a bomb hoax in Southampton.

Six schools in the city were forced to close or evacuate on Wednesday after staff received word of “serious” bomb threats.

Head teachers at some of the schools emailed parents telling them not to bring children, while some had to evacuate pupils.

The six affected schools were Bitterne Park School, Banister Park School, Regents Park Community College, St Anne’s Catholic Girls’ Secondary School, Weston Secondary School and Saint George Catholic College.

Stewart Roderick, the head teacher at Bitterne Park, sent parents a message saying: “We are just dealing with a site incident at school. Please do not send your child into school until you have a further update from us.”

James Habberley, head teacher at Saint George’s, told parents that at 8.15am, the school received a bomb threat via the school reception.

Mr Habberley told a reporter: “All the children were evacuated from the school building this morning to ensure they are safe and well.

“Police have been here this morning doing a tour of the site and have confirmed the bomb threat is a hoax.

“All of our students were kept in the shade, given water and access to the toilet. They will now be returning back to their normal lessons.”

The mother of two students at Saint George’s, one in year seven and one in year nine, said: “I received a text message from my son that said there had been a bomb threat at the school.

“As any parent [would], I quickly got dressed and drove straight up here to make sure everything was okay.”

Supt Phil Lamb, Southampton district commander, said: “We understand the undue worry and concern that yesterday’s news would have caused in the community – especially among the students and the parents of those affected.

“It is clear that the incident had a wide-ranging impact within the community.

“Thankfully, it was very quickly established by our officers that these were not a credible threat and this was communicated to school leaders at the first available opportunity to provide further reassurance.

“As always, we want to thank the local schools, local community and local stakeholders for their patience and co-operation as part of our enquiries and investigation.”