PUPILS at a Colne school are believed to have made more than 400 hoax calls to police.

The prank has been slammed as ‘reckless, stupid and idiotic’.

Colne police said someone could have died after call handlers were distracted with as many as 40 malicious calls inside 60 minutes.

Control room staff said the teenagers, who could be the subjects of a full criminal investigation, made 'childish comments' on the phone and were 'plainly not in need of the emergency services'.

The pranks, which began in February, have been traced to mobile phones thought to belong to pupils at Colne Primet Academy, which is sponsored by Pendle Education Trust, in Dent Street.

Head teacher Lynne Blomley and the trust's chief executive, Anita Ghidotti, did not return calls by the Lancashire Telegraph, but police confirmed that they had met with Mrs Blomley, who is helping them with their enquiries.

In a stern message to the hoax callers, Sgt Kim DeCurtis, who covers Pendle East, said: "The 999 system is for emergencies only. Playing silly childish pranks 400 times over is not funny.

"It is tying up our 999 system, it is taking call-takers' time, and other 999 calls are being re-routed. It is tying up officers' time tracking you down and dealing with it.

"The worst case scenario to this whole issue is that someone loses their life because you tied up a 999 line."

Sgt DeCurtis said police communication experts had used data from network providers, phone masts and historical cell site analysis to track the calls down to Colne and then, more precisely, to the school.

PC Nigel Keates, who covers Colne Rural, said Force Control Room staff informed him of the problem after they received 40 hoax calls in an hour on Monday afternoon.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson labelled the pranksters' actions 'grossly irresponsible'.

The Conservative said: "It is disgusting and outrageous that people would do something like this.

"No-one should be taking up the valuable resources of the emergency services when they are responding to people who may need life-saving assistance.

"It is grossly irresponsible. I speak to police all the time, in fact I had Ch Supt Chris Bithell in my office this morning, so I know that although crime is falling, resources are stretched.

"The emergency services are there to respond to exactly that - emergencies - not for less urgent cases and certainly not for hoaxes."

Sgt De Curtis said another 18 calls, believed to be from the same group, came through at 5pm on Thursday.

She said: "We think it is the same people because they are saying the same thing every time, the same phrase.

"It is a criminal offence under the Malicious Communications Act and it is also classed as wasting police time.

"If they were caught they could be prosecuted but with youths we would be more likely to stage an intervention and maybe bring them into the control room to see the damage they are doing.

"We prefer to educate. The head teacher is fully on board, but clearly whatever has been said so far isn't working.

"It is a complete waste of time and it is putting enormous pressure on staff."

Anyone with information about the hoax calls should ring 101 and quote log number 748/020315.