'Concerning' calls placed to multiple schools

Students evacuated outside at Dunedin's Logan Park High School following the nationwide 'bomb threats' (Newshub.)
Students evacuated outside at Dunedin's Logan Park High School following the nationwide 'bomb threats' (Newshub.)

Police say at least one of several threats which have prompted four schools across the country to evacuate is a hoax.

A number of schools across the country have reported receiving calls of a 'concerning nature', police say.

Several schools have responded by evacuating students, including Tahatai Coast School in Papamoa, Logan Park High School in Dunedin and Berkley Normal Middle School in Hamilton.

Oaklands school sent out an email to parents this afternoon, reassuring them that the threat to students was over. 

They notified parents that they had received a phone call at around 12:50pm, from someone "threatening to come into the school to shoot children". 

"The school took this very seriously and put the whole school into lockdown following police advice," the email said. 

"The school has been checked and all the children are safe and free to move around the school again." 

Police said that the phone call may have been similar to some received from overseas earlier this year.

"We should make it clear that while such calls may display a New Zealand number, they can still be originating from overseas. Similar incidents have previously occurred overseas," police said. 

At least two schools in Australia have also been evacuated after bomb threats were reported. New Zealand police were unable to say if the incidents were likely to be related.

Newshub.