Boy arrested as schools in London, Paris and Birmingham evacuated over mass BOMB threat
THOUSANDS of pupils have been evacuated from schools across London, Birmingham and Paris this morning after a series of bomb threats were made.
A number of schools have been evacuated
Police were called to schools across the three cities after a number of calls were made threatening to set off explosives in an apparently coordinated mass attack.
Fourteen schools in Birmingham, at least four in London and a further five in Paris have all been shut after receiving "malicious" threats.
In Birmingham children at one school were taken to the Hawthorns football ground, home of West Bromwich Albion, whilst expert officers secured the school premises.
According to reports the schools all received calls this morning from people threatening to turn up with bombs and guns.
A boy, 14, is being detained by officers in the West Midlands after a call was made to a school in the Great Barr area of Birmingham.
The call was traced to a nearby phone box.
Police have said the threat is not being linked with other hoax calls.
Inspector Noeleen Murrin, from Birmingham police, said: "These kinds of offences are not only a drain on police, council and school resources but they also waste the time of pupils who should be receiving their education."
A Russian website has claimed responsibility for the previous hoaxes
The latest threat follows a series of similar incidents which have caused panic across the three citiies over the last two weeks, and have been linked to pro Vladimir Putin websites.
It is understood that today's mass threat is the biggest to date, and that it has been made to trigger mass chaos and panic.
In Birmingham the schools affected include Oldbury, Brisnall Hall, and Sandwell Academies, George Salter High School, Ace Academy, Tipton, St Paul's Girls School in Edgbaston and Perryfields School.
Meanwhile in London Ursuline High School in Wimbledon, and Bishop Gilpin Primary School, Ricards Lodge High School and the Harris Academy in Merton have also shut.
In Paris Louis-le-Grand, Charlemagne, Condorcet, Hélène Boucher and Victor-Hugo secondary schools have been evacuated according to French media.
Due to a bomb threat call received this morning we have no choice but to evacuate the school in the interest of everybody's safety.
— Mr R Grover (@ACEHeadteacher) January 28, 2016
Spokesmen for the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police both said bomb threats made today were being treated as "malicious communications" and said there was no evidence of a direct threat to pupils' safety.
Announcing the threat on its website Ursuline High School, in Wimbledon, wrote on its website : "We have had a bomb threat at the school this morning. All students have been safely evacuated. We ask that parents do not attend or collect students. All student have been informed of the current situation. We are awaiting the police dog team to search the school."
A statement on nearby Bishop Gilpin's website read: "Bishop Gilpin is closed this morning due to a threat made against Ricards Lodge. We have received official clearance to reopen this afternoon. Children will be welcome in school from 1.30pm onwards. Children should make their way to class as they would in the morning. Gates will be staffed."
In Birmingham one of those schools evacuated, Oldbury Academy, was targeted for the third time in just a fortnight after receiving a similar threat last Thursday.
This morning the Academy has received a threat and has been evacuated. KS3 Students to be collected from Hadley Stadium car park.
— Shireland C Academy (@ShirelandCA) January 28, 2016
At this stage there is nothing to suggest there is any credible threat to any of the schools
The school tweeted this morning that it had received another threat and had closed as part of a contingency plan. However it said it would reopen this morning as soon as it was deemed safe.
The previous two incidents have both been found to be a hoax, and police believe that this morning's calls are also false and malicious.
Some of the schools announced they were closing for the day, but others said they would reopen once police gave the all-clear.
Detective Inspector Colin Mattinson, from West Midlands Police, said: "At this stage there is nothing to suggest there is any credible threat to any of the schools.
"Our response officers have been sent to the locations to ensure there is no threat to anyone’s safety and support the schools.
"A police investigation is on-going to find the person responsible for these calls.
It's bloody scary when your daughters school is evacuated twice in a week for bomb threats. My nerves are shot to pieces.
— BookWorm G (@MostlyInPyjamas) January 28, 2016
Just read that there was a bomb threat at my old school Wimbledon College, it's scary that such a thing can happen so close to home...
— Serginio Prince (@SerginioPrince) January 28, 2016
At least three of the schools targeted were also evacuated last Tuesday, when a total of four schools in the Black Country received similar hoax calls.
A Russian Twitter group that claimed it supported the regime of Syria's Bashar al-Assad has claimed responsibility for the hoaxes. Schools in London and Cornwall were also targeted and threats were also made to schools in France.
The group, which used an email address with a Russian ".ru" domain name and called itself "Evacuators 2K16", has now been removed from the social network, after inviting students to get in touch if they wanted to "get out of school".
Responding to the latest scare, a spokesman for the Department for Education said: "We are aware of the ongoing incident, police are looking into it and we are monitoring the situation.
"Nothing is more important than the safety of our children, where any school is subject to such a threat, real or otherwise, there are clear emergency arrangements in place that have been agreed with police and the local authority.
"We trust schools to follow those."
The Department for Education said it was aware of several incidents and was monitoring the situation.
The department said in a statement: "Nothing is more important than the safety of our children.
"Where any school is subject to such a threat, real or otherwise, there are clear emergency arrangements in place that have been agreed with police and the local authority.
"We politely request that the media don't report on bomb hoaxes as this is likely to cause further hoaxes which waste police time and disrupt children's education"
The maximum sentence for communicating a bomb hoax is seven years in prison.
The schools closed by today's threat
LONDON
Bishop Gilpin Primary School
Ricards Lodge High School
Harris Academy Merton
Ursuline High School, Wimbledon
BIRMINGHAM
Bristnall Hall Academy
Sandwell City Academy
Perryfields High School
Oldbury Academy
Ace Academy
George Salter High School
Ormiston Academy
Handsworth Grammar School
St Paul’s Girls School
Harborne Academy
Windsor High School
Sandwell College
Shireland Collegiate Academy
Colley Lane Primary School
PARIS
Louis-le-Grand
Charlemagne
Condorcet
Hélène Boucher
Victor-Hugo