Hoax!

BBC Radio Norfolk was tricked by a schoolboy into broadcasting a report that snow had forced the closure of his school. More than 500 of the 770 pupils at Northgate High School, East Dereham, stayed away for the day.

The boy, who has not been traced, impersonated his headmaster, Mr. John Gibbs, when he telephoned the radio station in Norwich. Mr. Gibbs said yesterday: "I was hopping mad. Radio Norfolk need their wrists rapping." The station has apologised.

Return to the hoax index