COPS were called when two 7-years-old boys “escaped” from their primary school by tunnelling under a security fence.
Naughty Bradley Tolley and his Year 3 pal had spent days secretly digging soil under a steel security fence during play times.
When it was wide enough for them to wriggle through they sneaked out of the school grounds on Wednesday during their lunch break.
Staff at Bentley West primary in Walsall,West Mids raised the alarm when they searched the school building and realised the pair were missing.
They found the hole the boys had dug under a rear steel fence and called the police.
Bradley's dad Daniel, 31, got a call from the school head Rod Dickson telling him his son was missing and that the police had been called in.
But he got a second call minutes later from a friend to say he had spotted Bradley and the other boy a mile and a half away from the school.
A "search party" of teachers returned them to lessons after they had been missing for an hour.
Jobless Daniel said he had given Bradley - who said he had run away because he "didn't want to learn" - a stern telling off.
But he slammed security at the school and claimed the head contacted him before he had called in the police.
He said: "Apparently Bradley and some friends had been scraping out the hole with sticks on the site of an old fox hole for days and had been planning something like the film the Great Escape. I couldn't believe it.
"I know he did wrong and should not have been so naughty but when you send your kids to school you expect them to be safe and looked after.
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"I can't understand why staff didn't pick up on what they were up to if they were spending all that time shifting soil. Someone should have noticed.
"The principal Mr Dickson rang me at 1.30pm and said: ‘There’s no need to worry, but your son has exited the school without an appropriate adult and is missing.’
“I said, ‘What do you mean missing?’ and he said, ‘He’s gone out the back of the fence and we’ve got staff out looking for him now.’
"I just went in to a panic. I charged down to the school but a friend rang to say they boys had been spotted and they had been taken back to school."
Daniel added:"I'm not quite sure what Bradley was doing for the lost hour but he said he went to the other boys' grandmother's house.
"He said they had gone near the motorway to get there and over a quarry.
"It scared me stiff because they could have been knocked over or abducted."
Yesterday workmen had blocked the hole the boys dug with timber.
Principal Mr Dickson said police were called as soon as it was realised the boys had gone missing and he would be speaking to their parents and examining security measures at the school.
He said:"I have spoken to the Year 3 pupils in person to establish the series of events and have emphasised the importance of school rules and why their actions were so serious.
"Their absence was noted within ten minutes of their departure ad we employed our policy for lost children and searched the school grounds and buildings.
If a child is not found after 15 minutes we call the police."
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