A primary school was today evacuated following a bomb scare.

Police were called to reports of a suspicious device which was found in woodland near Kings Hill Primary School in Crispin Way at 1.50pm.

Thought to be a wartime shell, it was discovered by a student and taken back to the school where it was contained in a room.

The object, which was around 30cm long and appeared to have been broken in two, has since been identified as a harmless training device.

All the students were evacuated but officers were still at the scene at 4pm.

They remained there until the Ministry of Defence's Explosive Ordnance Disposal team arrived and the device is understood to have been removed by 5pm.

The school is expected to be open as normal tomorrow.

A Kent County Council spokesman said: "When the item was discovered, the school took appropriate precautions by evacuating the building and sending staff and pupils to a safe location on the playing field. Parents were contacted by email and advised to collect their children.

"Bomb disposal experts from Folkestone who attended and identified the device agreed that the school had taken the appropriate action following the discovery."

Children were taken to the field in their classes while they waited for their parents to collect them.

Editor of Kings Hill Mums magazine Marika Cooke has two children Sam, 7, and Sophie, 4, at the school.

The 38-year-old said: "I received a text from the school at around 2.30pm saying a suspected unexploded device had been found and to go to collect the children from the top gate.

"I panicked. It was a shock and something you never expect to hear from your child's school.

"I jumped straight in the car and drove straight there and the roads were already congested with parents parking on the side of the road and running to the school.

"There was a sense of 'what on earth's going on' but the school handled it brilliantly.

"My children weren't too bothered about it. My son was pleased because he missed the last five minutes of RE.

"The consequences of a bomb going off just don't bear thinking about but it does seem unlikely that it would have been live and still working."

Another parent, who did not want to be named, said her first reaction was that it was a terrorist act.

She said: "I was very anxious and ran to the school. It was chaos and there was a sea of people and cars. No one knew what was happening, we were just relieved to be with our children."

Kings Hill village was built in the 1980s on a former airbase occupied by the RAF, and played a key role in the air campaign in World War II.

The school has nearly 450 students on its roll, aged four to 11.