Nearly 5,000 children were evacuated today after at least 15 schools across 11 counties in Britain allegedly received bomb threats.

Pupils at schools in Suffolk, Devon, Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey, Dorset, East Yorkshire, Essex, Somerset and Warwickshire were told to leave the building with parents being asked to collect their children urgently today.

Parents of pupils at one school in Ipswich received a text saying: 'Please don't worry. We have had to evacuate school. Everyone has been accounted for.'

Hundreds of primary school children were evacuated after a hoax bomb threat was made to Paddox Primary School in Rugby, Warwickshire, today

However, all of the threats made so far - including one in Cornwall - are being treated as hoaxes, with no suspicious devices found at any of the schools involved.

Parents linked the evacuation of Whitehouse Community Primary School in Ipswich - which left pupils crying - to an alleged bomb threat made in a telephone call.

Kirsty Youngs, 33, whose ten-year-old son was one of the evacuees, said: 'They were scared. Around 500 children were in the hall, there were lots of tears.

'They (teachers) refused to say anything at all about what happened. We were just told to take our children.

'The children said the fire alarms went off and that instead of going to line up on the playground they went to the hall.'

Sniffer dogs and specialist officers searched the site but found no evidence of a threat

Parents began rushing to pick their children up from their evacuation point at the nearby Ashlawn School after reports of the threat were posted on Facebook groups

The school was in lockdown this afternoon and forensic police officers were spotted entering the building.

Which schools have received threats today? St Sidwell's Church of England School in Exeter , Devon [evacuated]

, Devon [evacuated] Whitehouse Community Primary School in Ipswich , Suffolk [evacuated]

, Suffolk [evacuated] Castle Hill Primary School in Basingstoke , Hampshire [evacuated]

, Hampshire [evacuated] Paddox Primary School in Rugby , Warwickshire [evacuated]

, Warwickshire [evacuated] Oakfield Primary School in Totton , Hampshire [evacuated]

, Hampshire [evacuated] Bersted Green Primary School in Bognor Regis , Sussex [evacuated]

, Sussex [evacuated] Castle Primary School in Portchester , Hampshire [evacuated]

, Hampshire [evacuated] Castledown Primary School in Priory Road, Hastings , Sussex [evacuated]

, Sussex [evacuated] Milton Hall Primary School in Westcliff , Essex [evacuated]

, Essex [evacuated] Parkfield School in Taunton , Somerset [evacuated]

, Somerset [evacuated] Southill School in Weymouth , Dorset [evacuated]

, Dorset [evacuated] Highlands Primary School in Hull , East Yorkshire [evacuated]

, East Yorkshire [evacuated] Boxgrove Primary School in Guildford , Surrey [evacuated]

, Surrey [evacuated] St Mary Catholic Primary School in Falmouth , Cornwall [not evacuated]

Ford Primary School in Plymouth , Devon [not evacuated] Advertisement

A Suffolk Police spokesman said: 'We were called by the school reporting a bomb threat. they took the decision to evacuate. We are treating it as a hoax.

'A number of other police forces are also investigating malicious communications to schools and we're working together to determine who was responsible and whether the threats were linked.'

In Essex, pupils at Milton Hall Primary School in Westcliff were evacuated to a nearby school following a hoax call over ‘a device’ in a classroom at 11.30am.

Parkfield School in Taunton, Somerset, also received a telephone bomb threat today, leading to pupils being sent home and police sniffer dogs sent in.

A similar incident happened at Southill School in Weymouth, Dorset, which was also evacuated due to a bomb scare.

Other schools evacuated due to threats were Highlands Primary School in Hull, East Yorkshire, and Boxgrove Primary School in Guildford, Surrey.

Meanwhile in Devon and Cornwall, three schools in Exeter, Plymouth and Falmouth also received claims that suspicious devices were in place.

Parents of children at St Sidwell's Church of England School in Exeter were messaged just after 12pm to inform them of the action.

St Sidwell's acting headmaster Mr Tom Page said in an email to parents: 'We received an electronic phone call at approximately 8.50am saying that a suspicious device had been placed on the school premises.

'We therefore put our emergency evacuation procedure into place. The children were promptly evacuated to the Methodist Church Hall on Sidwell Street.

Parents linked the evacuation of Whitehouse Community Primary School in Ipswich, Suffolk, to an alleged bomb threat made in a telephone call

'The police were on the school site within minutes and began their search of the building.

'There have been three recent hoax calls to schools in Devon of exactly the same nature and after a thorough and comprehensive search of the building the police informed me that it was completely safe for the children and staff to return to school.

'The children have been informed of the reason for the evacuation.'

The other schools affected were St Mary Catholic Primary School in Falmouth and Ford Primary School in Plymouth, but neither were evacuated. However, police were in attendance and liaising with staff.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said: 'Whilst we are currently of the opinion that this call is without substance, as a precaution, police officers attended each of the school in question.

Parents of children at St Sidwell's Church of England School in Exeter were messaged just after 12pm to inform them of the action

'This is being treated as a hoax call and will be offences under the Malicious Communications Act. We take this extremely seriously, and condemn whoever is responsible.

'Malicious threats such as these divert police resources and cause disruption and alarm to the public and are completely irresponsible.

'Members of the public are encouraged to be vigilant and report anything suspicious to police.'

Meanwhile three schools in Hampshire were also targeted, which all took the decision to evacuate the pupils and staff before a search was carried out.

Ford Primary School in Plymouth, Devon, also received an alleged bomb threat this morning

The trio of Hampshire schools were Oakfield Primary School in Totton, Castle Primary School in Portchester and Castle Hill Primary School in Basingstoke.

Elsewhere at Paddox Primary School in Rugby, Warwickshire, a threat was reported at 9.45am, with sniffer dogs and specialist officers sent to search the site.

Parents began rushing to pick their children up from their evacuation point at the nearby Ashlawn School after reports of the threat were posted on Facebook groups.

Councillor Yousef Dahmash, a Paddox Primary parent, said: 'There was a threat made to the school. It appears that it was a bomb threat.

'We don't know where it came from at the moment. Police were on site this morning and they are still there now.

St Mary Catholic Primary School in Falmouth, Cornwall, was also affected by the threat

'At first, lots of parents were really worried about their children, but word got round quite quickly that they were all safe.

How hoax calls led to dozens of evacuations of UK schools last year The hoax calls and follow a similar pattern to incidents last year when dozens of UK schools faced a series of bomb threats just as the GCSE exam season started. Over a period last May, 27 schools shut on a Monday due to bogus calls, before 16 more closed the following day and then another ten on the Wednesday. It was feared last year that a campaign led on social media to close down schools was sparking copycat calls by people making bomb threats. A Russian Twitter group known as 'Evacuators 2K16' appeared to have claimed responsibility for hoaxes, telling pupils to contact them to ‘get out of school’. There were also reports of similar incidents in France, the US, Australia and Japan. Advertisement

'When I went to collect my daughter at around 10.45, most of the children were quietly sat in the large hall at Ashlawn. The teachers seemed well drilled and did a very good job.'

A Warwickshire Police spokesman said: 'We received a call at 9:45am about a threat to a primary school on Fareham Avenue.

'The school was evacuated and trained officers with search dogs entered the school. So far, nothing has been found.'

Meanwhile staff and pupils two primary schools in Sussex were evacuated after reports that bombs had been left on the premises.

Calls with threats were made shortly after 9am to Bersted Green Primary School in Bognor Regis and Castledown Primary School in Hastings.

Pupils and staff at both schools were evacuated and the buildings and grounds were searched by police officers.

Superintendent Carwyn Hughes, of Sussex Police, told the Brighton Argus: ‘The calls were received by the schools just minutes apart.

‘They show similarities to a number of calls that were received at other schools in the UK. The calls remain under investigation as malicious hoaxes.’