Schoolchildren evacuated and taken to hospital after gas canister explosion

More than 40 children were left needing hospital treatment after the explosion just before lunchtime at Christ Church High School in Ashford, Kent.

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Kent Police arrested a 12-year-old boy for possessing a pepper spray aerosol canister after a substance was released in the rear stairwell of a classroom block.

Two men, believed to be their 20s, were also seen in handcuffs with police outside the school as children were treated by a doctor.

An eyewitness said: "The men appear to have been shot in the face with pepper spray by the police. They are squinting and scratching their eyes."

Fire-fighters had rushed to the school after the blast shortly after 12.20pm and donned breathing apparatus before clearing the building of flames.

A Kent Police spokesman said: "More than 40 pupils at the school have been or are in the process of being taken to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford with a range of symptoms including coughing, sore eyes and vomiting.

"Kent Fire and Rescue Service are at the scene and have ventilated the building using breathing apparatus."

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Four Kent Fire and Rescue Service crews were called to the secondary school on Mill Bank Road, Ashford, after the blast which is now being investigated by police.

The South East Coast Ambulance Service 20 children were already at the William Harvey Hospital nearby suffering from minor breathing difficulties, nausea and sore eyes.

Another 35 children were being assessed and treated by a Kent Air Ambulance Trust doctor at the scene.

Pupil Georgina Fletcher, 11, who was being picked up by her mother Mandy, said: "I was in a humanities lesson when we all started to smell something funny. We didn't know what it was and a lot of us started coughing.

"Then a teacher came in and we were all told to go down to the school medical room. Lots of people were panicking, some of my friends were coughing and some fainted.

"I was told to go home but two or three people from my class were sent to hospital."

She added that it was mainly pupils in years eight and nine having lessons in the humanities block, who were affected.

A Kent County Council spokeswoman said the school was "operating as normal" this afternoon and will reopen as usual tomorrow.

The Church of England school has 1,200 pupils aged between 11 and 16.