Birmingham: 14-year-old boy arrested following Great Barr Comprehensive School bomb hoax

Police have arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection with a hoax bomb threat made to a school in Birmingham. The teenager is being held on suspicion of being responsible for the bomb threat called in to Great Barr Comprehensive School yesterday (27 January 2016).

West Midlands Police said the investigation is not linked to a series of other hoax bomb threats made across the West Midlands recently, which have seen thousands of pupils evacuated from school buildings as a precaution.

Inspector Noeleen Murrin of Birmingham Police said: "These kinds of offences are not only a drain on police, council and school resources but they also waste the time of pupils who should be receiving their education. We take reports like this very seriously and have acted quickly to identify the person we believe is responsible."

The maximum sentence for the offence of communicating a bomb hoax is seven years in prison. Today (28 January) several schools were evacuated in the West Midlands area after a total of 14 schools received bomb threats, but police dismissed suggestions there is "any credible threat to any of the schools".