UK schools threat: Terrified parents speak of horror after is email sent threatening to mow down children with car and shoot them

A screengrab of the message which has been sent to schools across the UK

Terrified parents from across the country have told of their horror after an email was sent to schools warning that their children would be mown down by a car and shot.

Mothers, fathers and grandparents spoke out against the “sick” threats, which are believed to be a hoax, as they described racing to collect their kids on Wednesday.

One concerned grandmother usually picks up her grandsons from Burnopfield Primary School in County Durham at about 3pm.

However, today she received a panicked phone call from her daughter-in-law about an hour earlier telling her to head to school immediately.

Susannah Carr told the Standard: “When I drove up to school I noticed a stream of parents arriving. Everyone was sort of half walking, running and had anxious faces.

“I asked a girl at the gates if she had heard anything. Mothers were running past me by then and she said apparently there had been an email sent to the school warning of a threat to harm the children later that afternoon.

“Well I just felt frantic and rushed round to get them… I collected the boys and left as quickly as possible. It was horrible. In this day and age you can't ignore threats.”

Kerri Chamberlain, from Evesham in Worcestershire, wrote on Twitter: “I’ve never really understood just how scary it is to get a message from your child’s school saying they are evacuating due to a safety threat.

“Emails to schools saying that they are going to harm children is NEVER EVER OK. Hoax or not it doesn’t matter!!!”

Another parent, from Plymouth, added: “What kind of sick individual threatens to mow down kids as they are leaving school & shoot them if leave school early.

“I feel physically sick and I want my boy home safe. He's 6 years old and shouldn't be scared like this. What's the world coming too!”

Lee Maggs, from Sittingbourne, said: “Never been so scared or worried in my whole life! Who calls in a hoax bomb threat at a primary school?”

Police forces in London, Durham, Cambridgeshire, Devon and Cornwall, the West Midlands and Northumbria have all confirmed schools were affected by Wednesday’s threat.

A spokesman for the Met Police said: “We have received a number of reports relating to malicious communications sent to schools across London on Wednesday, 28 March.

“These are currently being treated as hoaxes. There is no evidence to suggest that this is terror-related.”

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