A "serious incident" was declared at a school... after pupils' deodorant set off an ultra-sensitive alarm.

Walderslade Girls’ School sent a text message to pupils' parents, which said: "Due to a serious incident today all aerosol sprays are banned from the school premises.

"No student may bring a spray into school from now on."

But head teacher Louise McGowan has now said the “serious incident” was the evacuation of the school in Bradfields Avenue, after aerosols set the fire alarm off.

She said: “Over the summer we have had a new fire alarm installed, we were told that it would be extra sensitive.

“We knew we may have a few issues we thought it would be things like burning a piece of toast, but as it's a hot day a lot of the girls got their deodorant out after they had PE and it ended up setting it off.

“Aerosols are a banned substance at the school, so I wanted to send out a reminder to parents as it caused disruption to the school as we had to evacuate.

“I will follow the text message up with a letter to parents.”

One angry parent, who didn't want to be named, said the text came while she was at work.

She said: "You fear the worst when you receive a text talking about a 'serious incident', not helped by the delay in being able to check my daughter was ok as it was during the school day.

"When I found out what had actually happened, I was really angry. Why on earth use words like 'serious' unless someone has been hurt?"