A scary experience - the school caught up in the Liverpool terror cordon

VIDEO report by ITV News Correspondent Elaine Willcox

New Park Primary in the Kensington area of Liverpool found itself in the middle of an active crime scene.

It is just over a week since Liverpool was shaken by the news that a bomb had exploded outside the city's Women's Hospital

Since then, police have continued to search addresses around the Kensington area of the city.

The Primary school, which has over 500 pupils, was closed on Monday after the terrorist incident. Then on Wednesday afternoon on police orders, parents were asked to collect their children and take them to safety.

Bomb squad officers had been called to the scene after potentially explosive materials were found at a property linked to the bomber and the school had to be evacuated.

Emad Al Swealmeen, a failed asylum seeker from Iraq had packed ball bearings into a homemade device, which exploded shortly before 11:00 GMT on Remembrance Sunday in a taxi outside the Liverpool Women's Hospital.

The headteacher of New Park Primary said they were told to ask parents to pick up their children and evacuate the school as soon as they could.

They were told to take any remaining children to a classroom as far away from the police cordon, which had been extended close to the school on Boaler Street.

Rachel Chuda, whose daughter is a pupil at the school said:

'It was so close to home it hits you more, I asked my little daughter if she was nervous going back into school the next day and her exact answer was I feel safe in my school that says it all, the teachers staff are wonderful".

New Park Primary is a diverse school, where 49 different languages are spoken and a number of children come from refugee families.

Some of them described how they felt, when they learnt there had been a bombing incident, and the man responsible had made Liverpool his home while seeking asylum.

'When I woke up on Monday I was like why is mum not going to work, why am I not going to school, mum told me there was a terrorist and I was like, I wasn't expecting that to happen and when school said we can go back on Tuesday I was feeling a bit nervous."

'People are safe right now in this country but since the bomb happened they are worried again."

'There's lots of people talking about the whole bomb incident and everything"

'I was also pretty scared about it but I tried not to show it"

Terrorist incidents can sow division, but not at this school where all children play a big part of school life.

Liverpool's positve response to the terrorist attack has been widely praised, along with the pupils who comforted each other.

Julie Robinson, is a support worker and said the staff were exceptionally calm, but it was a huge relief when she got home to her own children.

"We never felt like we were on our own so that was reassuring but it was frightening."

"As soon as I got home to my children, I was like don't cry, but it was a massive relief as soon as I left the area really and got home to my children, it might not have been this way.