POLICE are investigating after an incident at a North Yorkshire school - believed to be related to the 'blackout challenge' - left a pupil requiring hospital treatment.

North Yorkshire Police said the force was contacted at 3.35pm last Friday by Outwood Academy in Easingwold, regarding a pupil who required medical attention following an incident which had taken place earlier that day on school premises.

"It’s understood that a physical altercation between the victim and another pupil led to the victim requiring hospital assistance," said a spokesperson.

"Officers from the local Neighbourhood Policing Team are working with the school to establish the full circumstances around the incident."

A spokesperson for Outwood Academy Easingwold said it was working with North Yorkshire Police to aid officers in their investigations wherever it could, as student safety was its priority.

"We will be engaging with students about the dangers of the blackout challenge and ask for the support of parents and carers to do the same," they said.

They added that the school believed the incident was related to the challenge craze on social media.

The challenge involves people intentionally holding their breath until they pass out due to a lack of oxygen.

It is reported to have been linked to a number of deaths of young people around the world.

Last month, a York school warned parents that students had taken part in the 'dangerous' challenge, which it said was circulating on social media.

The vice-principal (welfare) of Manor CE Academy, Louise Scaum, emailed parents and carers to warn them of the trend and ask them to highlight the dangers to their children.

She said: "In this, students are purposefully attempting to make themselves faint by holding their nose/breath until they pass out.

"We have unfortunately had a couple of attempts at this in school this week and therefore hope that by making parents/carers aware, you can be given the opportunity to highlight the dangers of this .... and prevent this from further occurring."

She told The Press that the safety and wellbeing of the schools’ pupils was her utmost priority, adding: “Having discovered this dangerous 'Blackout Challenge' is circulating on social media again, we wanted to make parents and carers aware."

One Manor parent commented at the time: "This is really scary. People need to know what's going on, so they can do something to prevent it happening."