Larkrise Primary School closes because of sewage leak

A school spokeswoman described it as a "significant sewage issue"

A school has closed due to raw sewage spilling out onto its playground.

Larkrise Primary School in Oxford closed its doors on health and safety grounds after one of its drains started leaking on Wednesday evening.

A spokeswoman called it a "significant sewage issue", adding: "We will be unable to use the toilets until Thames Water rectifies the situation."

Thames Water said the problem, caused by grease and fat in the pipes, was now fixed.

In a statement on Twitter, the school said: "We are extremely sorry for this announcement but after further investigation, we have discovered a significant sewage problem that is now affecting the whole school.

"Due to this we now need to close the whole school."

'Hardened cooking fat'

In a letter to parents, headteacher Jon Gray said the school was affected by a "similar event which later became a significant issue involving sewage" last year.

"In the main this was caused by Thames Water who took a number of days to attend the school site", he wrote.

He added: "These matters are beyond our control... we are working hard to ensure that the situation is quickly resolved."

A Thames Water spokesperson said: "Our engineers were quickly on the scene this morning and found that the flooding was caused by a blockage of hardened cooking fat and grease in the sewer.

"This has now been removed and the pipe is flowing normally again.

"A full clean-up of the affected area is underway so the school can reopen as soon as possible."

The spokesperson urged people to avoid pour cooking fat and oils down the sink "as they will eventually turn solid and build up in your pipes".

The school is making online learning available to pupils while the premises are off limits.