SCHOOLS in Hampshire are among 400 targeted as part of a hoax bomb threat.

The "malicious" email says a bomb will be detonated on school grounds if money is not handed over, police have said.

It has been sent to more than 400 schools across England – causing some to evacuate students as a precaution.

Hampshire Constabulary say schools in the county and Isle of Wight are among those targeted.

But the force says it is treating the email as a hoax.

Hampshire police are not advising schools in the county to evacuate.

A spokeswoman said: "We are aware of a malicious email which has been sent to a number of schools in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight this morning.

"The malicious email is being treated as a hoax.

"We are not advising schools to evacuate.

"The reports are being investigated nationally as part of a wider series across the country."

A spokeswoman for Hampshire County Council confirmed a number of its schools had been targeted.

However, the council was unable to say which schools had received the hoax email.

Police forces in Cumbria, Cambridgeshire, Humberside, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Avon and Somerset and Northumbria Police say schools in their areas have all received the threat.

Humberside Police said counter-terrorism colleagues had advised that the threats were not "credible".

Both the Home Office and the Department for Education, meanwhile, are advising any school that receives the email to contact their local police force.