Northamptonshire school chiefs issue London trip alert

Education chiefs are warning parents of the dangers of school trips to London after the Foreign Office alert level for European terror attacks was raised.

Northamptonshire County Council believes trips for up to 10,000 children could be being planned.

It alerted the county's 349 secondary and primary schools and said head teachers must let it know if they are planning a school visit to the capital.

The council apologised for mistakenly claiming the UK alert level had risen.

Parents filling in permission slips for trips will be told of the Foreign Office warning and will be given the option to withdraw their children.

A council spokesman said the guidance is part of a school trip health and safety policy in place for many years.

Mistaken advice

The advice has been repeated because the Foreign Office recently elevated the threat level of possible terrorist attacks in other parts of Europe, he said.

He also apologised for a previous message which implied the current threat level on London or the UK had been increased.

The spokesman said: "We have put in place a measure with the support from schools to provide contact details for all visits to the London area.

"We have done so in the past because of previous terrorist activities within the capital and because of the high number of trips to the city.

"We reiterated this approach to schools following the recent increase in the terror alert by the Foreign Office for parts of Europe.

"Last week we mistakenly gave the impression to schools that the terror threat in London had also recently increased.

"This is not the case as the whole of the UK has been at a 'severe' threat of a terrorist attack since January. We apologise for any confusion this mistake caused."