AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD girl has taken a knife into a North Yorkshire school and threatened to stab a police officer in the heart.

North Yorkshire Police said officers attended a primary school in the Harrogate district on February 18 after an eight-year-old girl produced a kitchen knife in class.

"The class was evacuated and the police were called," said a spokeswoman.

"During the incident, the girl made threats to the attending officers and teaching staff.

"The incident was brought to a safe conclusion and no-one was injured and the knife recovered. The girl is now receiving appropriate support."

The incident came to light in a tweet by a Police Community Support Officer, Matt Murphy, based in Knaresborough, saying that a week of action to tackle knife crime had been launched by the force.

He went on: "Only last week, an 8-year-old took this knife into school and made threats.

"When I arrived the child told me they would stab me in the heart. So this week we are educating people around the dangers of knives."

Judith Kirk, North Yorkshire’s assistant director for education, said it had been an isolated incident and said safeguarding was the county council's statutory duty, which it took very seriously.

She said an academy trust which was involved in this case would have its own policies and procedures to deal with any incident, and had received advice and guidance through North Yorkshire safeguarding protocols.