Police have arrested a man after shots were reportedly fired at ground staff near a school in Dorset.

Staff and children at Highcliffe school, Christchurch, were kept inside the building briefly on Thursday afternoon after the alarm was raised.

Nobody was injured in the incident.

The spokesman said: “Police were called at 12.06pm to reports that an air weapon had been fired at groundsmen working on fencing surrounding Highcliffe school in Christchurch.” Officers, including armed response units, conducted a search of the area and the 26-year-old man was arrested on firearms offences at an address near the school and taken into police custody. A number of airgun pellets were also recovered from the address.

Earlier, Dorset police sought to reassure parents that there was no risk to the children at the school, who were kept inside.

A receptionist at the school said at 1.30pm that the school was not in lockdown and that police had reopened a stretch of road outside the building.

In a statement on the school’s website, the headteacher, Patrick Earnshaw, said: “Reports in the local press of armed police being called to the school are incorrect. There is no need for parents or students to be alarmed. Students are completely safe.”