A BOMB scare closed an Eynesbury primary school and led to the 200 pupils being sent home after a mysterious piece of metal was discovered by staff.

A BOMB scare closed an Eynesbury primary school and led to the 200 pupils being sent home after a mysterious piece of metal was discovered by staff.

Police officers were called to Middlefield Primary School in Andrew Road at 11.45am last Wednesday morning (May 26) after a teaching assistant dug up “a suspicious device”.

However, the bomb squad investigated the find and discovered that it was a jagged piece of metal which had become embedded in the school grounds.

Headteacher Susannah Connell told The Hunts Post: “We found a suspicious piece of metal when doing some planting in the meadow. It looked like a three-bladed propeller. It looked the right size and shape to be a World War I bomb.

“I moved the children out of the area to the other side of the school and phoned the police for advice. They sent over a couple of officers who were concerned and we evacuated the children to the far side of the field, which was over 200m away from the object.

“Two more officers arrived and they were of the view that it needed investigating and they called out the bomb disposal unit.

“As we could not feed the children and only had two toilets I then initiated our protocol to contact parents.”

Mrs Connell added: “We were allowed to go to specific areas of the school and our catering team started to serve what food they could to the children outside while the other members of staff went to get any lunch boxes that they could. Within an hour of contacting parents we only had 15 children left at school. When the bomb unit arrived they were concerned and decided to dig a one-metre trench and x-ray the piece of metal.”

Mrs Connell was full of praise for her pupils who she said remained calm throughout the precautionary evacuation.

“The children were as usual wonderfully behaved and calm – it was a perfect evacuation,” she said. “They were all fabulous and we were lucky it was a fine day so we could sit on the school field in the shade and sing songs.

“All of the children made us exceptionally proud.”