Students allowed to go home after Waikato and Bay of Plenty high schools placed in lockdown

The students of two high schools in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty which were in lockdown earlier due to alleged bomb threats have been allowed to go home.

Hillcrest High School was advised by police at 2.30pm to begin evacuating students and both police and all the students have now left the scene.

Hillcrest High School posted an update on Facebook this evening saying it had gone into lockdown and subsequently carried out a staggered evacuation as a result of a bomb threat.

"The school is satisfied the emergency processes and procedures undertaken were appropriate and carried out in the best interests of students and staff of Hillcrest High School," the post said.

Students at Te Puke High School have also been sent home.

Police remained at Te Puke High School and were speaking to a person of interest, but no charges had been laid, a police media spokesperson confirmed.

Hillcrest High School had been in lockdown since 1pm, while Te Puke High School students were also in lockdown from about 10am.

A student at Hillcrest High posted on social media that police were in attendance, while a parent of a Te Puke student said she had received an email at 12.30pm from the school saying it was also in lockdown, which was later confirmed by police.

Posted by Hillcrest High School - Te Kura Tuarua o Tihipuke on Sunday, 1 July 2018

Posted by Hillcrest High School - Te Kura Tuarua o Tihipuke on Sunday, 1 July 2018

Students at Hillcrest High and parents earlier commented on social media about reports of a bomb threat, however that is yet to be confirmed by police.

A police spokesman said earlier that police were called to Hillcrest High School at 12.12pm to a "report of information of concern being received".

"The school has been locked down and cordons are in place. Police are at the scene making an assessment."

Students leaving the school said all they had been told by their teachers as they sat in their classrooms was that there had been a bomb threat.

There were a lot of rumours going around about what had caused the lockdown.

"I heard there was a guy threatening someone saying there was a bomb or that he had weapons in his car," one student said.

It was the second time the school had been in lockdown this year, he said.

The email to the Te Puke High School parent states the school was advising parents the school was going into lockdown.

It said parents wouldn't be able to contact their children as they had been instructed not to use their phones until they "received the all-clear".

A police media spokesman said police were called to Te Puke High School on Tui St at 10.17am in response to "a report that information of concern had been received".

It is understood the incident was also a bomb threat.

The spokesman said police were at the school working with staff and conducting an assessment.

A reporter at the scene said there were about eight police cars outside the school entrance at the time.

He said there was a sign on the school gate saying that it was closed.

"One of the policemen has a gun," he said at the time.