SEVEN children have been suspended after police were called to break up a planned fight between pupils from two primary schools.

A group of 10 and 11-year-olds marched almost half a mile from Audley Junior School, Queen's Park Road, Blackburn, to face pupils from Saint Mary and Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School, Bennington Street.

Police believe that Monday's pre-planned fight was arranged by year-six pupils at Audley after threats by boys from Saint Mary and Saint Joseph's.

Teachers from Audley Juniors called officers for back-up and went out to stop the children.

Today teaching unions said they were deeply disturbed that pupils so young could be involved and urged staff at the school to deal with any underlying problems that could have caused it.

The headteachers of both schools moved to reassure parents and the community that the incident had been dealt with firmly and had not damaged the "good" working relationship that exists between the two schools.

Inspector Graham Ashcroft from Blackburn police said officers who had been called to the scene had spoken with the children involved in the presence of their parents about the consequences of their actions.

He said: "We were called at 3.49pm on Monday by David Balding, a teacher from Audley Junior School.

"Mr Balding said that a number of his pupils were en route to Saint Mary's and Saint Joseph's in Bennington Street to start a fight with pupils.

"At that stage he had managed to stop seven of these boys and returned them to the school.

"Another member of staff had also returned a number of pupils to Saint Mary's and Saint Joseph's.

"When the police arrived a number of the boys were in the headmaster's office and officers spoke in depth with them in the presence of staff and their parents, who had also been called to the school.The officer also spoke with staff at Saint Mary and Saint Joseph's.

"These pupils were warned about their conduct and both sites decided that members of staff would deal with this internally.

"Seven boys from Audley Juniors have now been suspended from school."

Nick Kokkinis, principal officer for the National Union of Teachers in the North West, said: "This is an extremely disturbing incident.

"It is clearly very, very rare that we will have a situation in primary or even secondary schools where we have large groups of children go down to another school to seek trouble.

"I think that all the people in the community, school teachers, the governing body and, in this case, the police and local politicians, will have to look thoroughly at why this happened.

"Is there some underlying issues or tensions between the two school populations that needs to be address to ensure there is no possibility of this ever happening again?

"The teachers and parents at both schools should now get closely involved so that bridges can be built and good will between the two sets of pupils can be re-established."

Headteachers Adrian Woods of Audley Junior School and Elaine Grimshaw of Saint Mary and Saint Joseph's, would not reveal how long the boys involved in the fight had been suspended for, but said: "The matter has been firmly dealt with."