Police raided a posh boarding school in Berkshire and arrested a 16-year-old male student for allegedly purchasing ingredients online to make a bomb. Counter-terrorism cops stormed Wellington College after campus security became suspicious of a package that was delivered to the school premises addressed to the schoolboy.
The Sun reported on Sunday that school security seized the delivery and later discovered the box contained what they described as “illicit materials”. Upon opening the package, school officials immediately called authorities to report the incident. Detectives from the Counter-Terrorism Policing South East arrived at the college and arrested the boy during the raid.
The unnamed GCSE schoolboy who attends the £42,630 ($55,800)-a-year college was identified as a non-boarding campus co-ed and attends the school as a day student. He was removed from the campus premises and detained under the Explosives Act. The teenager was subsequently suspended by the school authorities and has already been released on bail.
The college has not made further statements or comments on the incident while the police continue their investigation. Headmasters of the school and the police stated the whole incident was not declared as anything terror-related.
“Wellington College can confirm a package addressed to a day pupil, received in the post, raised concerns with our security team and, in line with our protocols, was intercepted and opened,” a spokeswoman for the prestigious school said.
“The boy concerned has been suspended with immediate effect and removed from the premises. The college can make no further comment while police investigations continue.”
Founded by Queen Victoria and opened in 1859, the posh boarding and day school is said to be one of the best public schools in the country housing some 1,200 students aged between 13 and 18 years old.
The incident is reminiscent of a similar case that took place in January when a 16-year-old student from York High School, Virginia was arrested for allegedly threatening to bomb another student’s home. The York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office said the incident took place on a school bus and had school resource officers and investigators scrambling to search the teenager’s home. Despite not finding any bomb-related materials, the teen student was charged with two counts of threats to bomb and held in custody at the Merrimac Detention Center.
