Lockdown after threat to nursery

A number of Maidstone schools were put into lockdown, after a threat was made against a nursery.

Tiger Primary, New Line Learning Academy (NLL) and Five Acre Wood were closed to visitors on police advice on Tuesday while officers investigated a malicious communication directed towards a pre-school at the Boughton Lane site.

The report was received at 1.30pm and a number of squad cars were sent to the complex, where more than 1,100 children are based across different schools.

Officers visited the nursery at the centre of the threat and as a precaution provided advice to other nurseries in the area. No arrests have been made. Police would not reveal the precise content of the threat, or to whom it was made.

A spokesman for Maidstone Day Nursery and Pre-School, in Boughton Lane, said: “We were made aware by police that there was an incident in the Maidstone area.

“The children were safe in the nursery at all times. Our priority is the safety and wellbeing of all our children, colleagues and nursery families.”

A spokesman for Future Schools Trust, which runs Tiger, NLL and Little Learners Nursery, said the incident was not linked to any of its schools.