Ten students have been suspended

Parkside Community College has suspended 10 students after Wednesday's incident and police are investigating.

An anti-racism group said 13 children from the city's refugee community would not return until their safety was assured.

In a statement on Friday Plymouth City Council said the school was "calm".

'Without precedent'

Jon McKenzie, of The Monitoring Group Rural Racism Project in Plymouth, said the six families were keeping their children at home because of fears they were not safe at school.

He said: "Until something fairly significant changes, they are not prepared to allow their children to go to school."

The children who were allegedly targeted by the racist abuse include refugees from Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.

Senior staff were ringing the families of the absent children to "offer them reassurances about the safety of their children" and discuss their concerns, the council's statement said.

The council added: "We would like to reiterate that Plymouth City Council will not tolerate racism in any of its schools.

"We run a long-term community cohesion programme, which encourages youngsters of all races to live and work together.

"The council is currently carrying out its own investigation into the incident, and will be working closely with all the other agencies involved to tackle any underlying problems in the community more effectively."

Mr McKenzie said there had been reports for several months of refugee children at the school being racially abused.

He added: "We deal with hundreds of incidents of racially-aggravated violence, but the kind of gravity of the incident at the school is without precedent."