Spate of bomb threats nationwide as schools and shopping centre evacuated

Several schools up and down the country - including one in Bedfordshire - and a major UK shopping centre have been evacuated today due to a spate of hoax bomb threats.
Police tapePolice tape
Police tape

But it now appears it was not just the Bedford school that was targeted.

Cambridgeshire Police have also been called to schools in Peterborough and Cambridge following threats which are being treated as hoaxes but all pupils have been sent home, as reported by our sister paper the Peterborough Telegraph.

Similar threats were made at a similar time at two schools in Kent. Barming Primary School in Maidstone and Canterbury Academy were both evacuated and closed following bomb threats at around 10.30am.

Meanwhile Kingsham Primary School in Chichester was also evacuated.

In Hampshire, Whiteley Primary School and Emsworth Primary School were evacuated while Oulder Hill School and Redwood School in Rochdale were evacuated after calls warning of a “suspicious package”.

Crabtree Farm Primary School in Bulwell, Notts was evacuated and this afternoon Idlewells Shopping Centre in Sutton, Notts, has been evacuated and British Army specialists called in.

In Northumberland, Lindisfarne Middle School, Swansfield Park First School, Duke’s Middle School and St Michael’s C of E First School all faced evacuation following calls.

In Stockton, Rosebrook Primary School was also ‘locked down’ by police and there are reports nationally of similar evacuations at two other schools.

In February bomb threats were made at six schools in Birmingham, alongside additional threats in Glasgow.