CHASED BY CAR Primary school launches investigation after young boy leaves grounds in Welling

A primary school in Welling has launched an investigation after a young boy left the school grounds and was later stopped more than half a mile away. The incident happened shortly before 1pm on Tuesday near Hillsgrove Primary School. Motorist Chelsea Morris said the boy, believed to be aged around six or seven, ran into the road in front of her car on Okehampton Crescent. She said she stopped to check on him, but the child ran away.

Motorist chased boy through traffic

Ms Morris said she got out of her vehicle and followed the boy because he was repeatedly running into the road. She said: “He nearly got hit several times and so did I.” According to her account, she and another member of the public eventually managed to stop the boy on Teignmouth Road. They remained with him until staff from the school arrived to collect him. Ms Morris said she believed the school may not initially have realised the boy had left the grounds, although the school has not confirmed that point.

School says incident is ‘extremely serious’

Principal Kathryn Laurie said the school had launched a full investigation into what happened. She described the incident as “extremely serious” and thanked the member of the public who helped the child. Ms Laurie said: “We are fully investigating what happened, including the sequence of events and the response to the incident.” She added: “The safety and wellbeing of every child are our highest priority. “Any immediate safety concerns will be addressed promptly, and we will act on the investigation’s findings to strengthen arrangements wherever necessary.” The school said its initial enquiries had established that the incident was not caused by gaps in perimeter security and that the site had not been left open to intruders. The matter has also been referred to the local authority.