A FULL investigation has begun into the police response to an incident in which a man entered a Kent school and was threatening to kill staff.

St Stephen's Junior School at Canterbury made four calls to the police but no officers were sent to the premises.

Kent police said the first two calls were made on a public line, the third was a 999 call from the head teacher, and the fourth was also from the head teacher, but not on the 999 system.

Kent police said the inquiry into its response would be thorough and that its findings would also be made public.

The force has also reviewed its procedures for dealing with calls from schools and has developed a new protocol, being distributed to schools across Kent and Medway, for dealing with serious or immediate threats.

Deputy Chief Constable Jim Barker-McCardle, who is leading the inquiry, said: "We are taking this matter extremely seriously. We treat all incidents at schools very seriously."

Senior ranking officers are also investigating the incident itself, to ensure the offender is brought to justice.

Mike Fuller, the Chief Constable, who ordered the inquiry, has apologised in writing to Stuart Pywell, headteacher of St Stephen's Junior School for the poor quality of the force's response to the four calls from the school.The headteacher had made a formal complaint.

Mr Barker-McCardle stressed: "We deal with more than 850,000 calls a year, most of which are dealt with to a very high standard. We got this one wrong. We should have responded to the school and we didn't."

The Deputy Chief Constable has promised to make public the findings of the force's investigation.

Kent police said the inquiry into its response would be thorough and that its findings would also be made public.