A NORTH-East primary school was on "lockdown" as it became one of about a dozen affected across the country by threatening calls on Monday.

Thousands of pupils were evacuated from schools across the UK after warnings from anonymous callers of a bomb on site.

Rosebrook Primary, in Stockton, told parents on its Facebook page: "You may be aware of police presence at school.

"We have received a threat to the school but please be assured the children are safe, we are dealing with the incident and the school is on lock down at the moment."

Rosebrook Primary was not evacuated as the call was treated as a hoax, but there was a small police presence on site.

Chief Superintendent Gordon Lang, of Cleveland Police, said: "Police received information from Rosebrook Primary School after a staff member had answered an anonymous call of a threatening nature at around 11.15am this morning.

"As a precaution, police attended the school and confirmed that there was no immediate risk to pupils or teachers. Nursery children were able to leave their morning session as normal and children have been collected by parents at 3pm.

“We are aware that there are reports of a number of concerning calls in other Force areas, however our immediate focus has been to ensure the safety of pupils in the Cleveland area.

"We are treating the call to Rosebrook Primary School as a hoax and enquiries are continuing to identify the caller. Hoax calls waste valuable policing resources and offenders will be brought to justice. I would like to thank the teachers from the school for their professionalism whilst we dealt with the incident.”

Schools in different parts of the country were evacuated after the threat, which some reports suggested had threatened to "take the children's heads off" with shrapnel.

Some schools felt they were left with no choice but to pull students out of classrooms during GCSE exams.

One headteacher in Canterbury said staff received "repeated" calls from an adult male claiming an explosive device was hidden in the school, but nothing was found.