PARENTS have spoken of their fear that a village primary school would be targeted by Islamic extremists after its website was hacked by people claiming to be Muslim anarchists.

North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire County Council moved to calm parents of pupils at Sowerby Community Primary School ytoday (Tuesday, January 6) after hackers calling themselves X-saad posted a statement on the website, which normally features school news.

Above several lines written in Arabic, the hackers stated: "We defend our religion, we do not forget, we are without limits, we do not believe in laws.

"Islam is not a terrorist religion, but Islam is the religion of co-existence and mercy and love, the terrorists are Israel and America."

The message, which also featured the US and Israeli flags with a red cross through them, ended with "f*** Zionists".

News of the cyber attack spread rapidly among the school community, and amid mounting speculation over pupils' safety on social media, some parents said they planned to keep their children at home for the first day of term.

Jennifer Lofthouse, whose children are among the 230 attending the school, said a concerned parent had alerted her to the attack and the Arabic writing sparked concern the school would be targeted by terrorists.

She said: "The first thing I thought was I'm not taking the kids to school."

The cake decorator said after consulting a website professional she decided the school would be safe and said many parents made the same decision as the school had sent families a message of reassurance.

To stimulate further confidence, governors and police officers attended the school to answer questions as children returned from their Christmas holidays.

Inspector Chris Galley said the hackers used a virus which seeks out servers with weak security software.

He said: “Other organisations and businesses both locally, nationally and internationally have had their websites compromised in a similar manner in recent months and there is no suggestion that Sowerby Primary School was deliberately targeted in any way."

A North Yorkshire County Council spokesman said: “Our schools place great importance on website security, but we understand that despite all best efforts public and corporate websites can be compromised in this way from time to time.

“We are reassured by the police in this case that this was a random breach and that children are not at any risk.”

Sowerby Parish Council chairman Bill Austin said he was dismayed by the attack on a school which had strived to earn its excellent reputation.