08/02/2008

Three Bailed Following Pepper Spray Attack

A 12-year-old boy and two parents who were arrested after a pepper spray attack at a Kent school have all been released on bail.

Kent Police confirmed that the boy had been arrested on suspicion of possessing a prohibited weapon and discharging a noxious substance.

The two men, aged 32 and 37 and understood to be parents of children at the school, were also arrested at the school on suspicion of assaulting police. Parva spray - a different substance to that used in the school - was used to subdue the two men, police confirmed.

Twenty-one children were taken to hospital, after the substance was released in the rear stairwell of a classroom block at Christ Church High School in Ashford on Thursday. Emergency services were called to the school around 12:20pm.

The children, who were all suffering from symptoms such as coughing, sore eyes and vomiting, were treated at the William Harvey Hospital and all later sent home.

Kent County Council confirmed that lessons at the school had continued on Thursday afternoon and that the school was open for business as usual on Friday.

(KMcA)


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