Hoax emails sent out to hundreds of schools across the country warning of a ‘bomb threat’ may have been sent because of a “feud” between gamers, according to reports.

More than 400 schools were put on alert after receiving the email yesterday (March 19), including schools in Sutton, Kingston, and Greenwich.

Despite many of the schools being evacuated, police forces around the country responded that there were not believed to be any “viable threats”.

But Sky News has now reported that the emails may have been sent as part of a feud between rival online gamers.

The emails, which threatened to blow up schools if money wasn’t sent via an internet hyperlink, contained references to VeltPvP, a “player-versus-player” server on the popular video game Minecraft.

Schools affected in South London included Manor Park Primary School in Sutton, Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Primary School in Tolworth, and Heronsgate Primary School's Royal Arsenal campus.

Servers are set up to allow players to compete and interact with each other in the game by hosting a shared session online.

The Sky News report suggests the emails were designed to falsely point towards the VeltPvP server as being behind the malicious messages in a bit to have the server domain suspended.

The author of the article claims to have made contact with the person behind the hoax emails who claimed VeltPvP had been behind a number of unrelated attacks on other internet users and servers designed to disrupt internet connections.

When asked if he regretted frightening children whose schools were evacuated, he is reported to have responded “It is horrible, it’s not the nicest thing.”

But Carson Kallen, the chief executive of Velt LLC denied any wrongdoing, claiming to be a victim of cybercrime and apologising to people affected by the emails.

A statement from VeltPVP said: "We've been being harassed by a group of cybercriminals that are trying to harass us in any way possible.

"We're extremely sorry for anyone who had to deal with this, but just know it's fake."

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police confirmed yesterday that the emails were being investigated.