AN ARREST has been made after a school was shut down amid reports of a man with a machete.

Armed police rushed to Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (Baca) at about 3pm on Thursday to guard the school gates in Lewes Road.

Pupils were locked inside their classrooms and officers worked to secure the area as a helicopter joined the hunt for the suspect.

Sussex Police have now arrested a man in the city after the incident.

The 24-year-old man from Brighton was arrested yesterday at noon on on suspicion of affray.

He remained in custody yesterday afternoon.

Sussex Police were called to the scene at 2.55pm amid claims a man was in possession of a weapon.

The police escorted the pupils off the school’s premises at about 4.20pm while the search continued.

The children were told to avoid the woodland area while officers – assisted by a helicopter – continued the search for the suspect.

Following the incident, one pupil at the school contacted The Argus to praise the school for its response.

“I was one of the Year 9’s stuck in class, and our teacher lifted our spirits by playing ‘Let it go’ on full volume,” the pupil said. “I just wanted to put it out how amazingly the teachers dealt with it.”

Yesterday, a parent praised principal Bob Speight Speight – and all other staff – for doing “an amazing job”.

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