A hundred and sixty pupils and staff have been taken ill with a stomach virus at a school in North Yorkshire.

Public health officials have closed Thorpe Willoughby Primary School, near Selby, in an attempt to eradicate the bug.

The school has been hit by the airborne infection, viral gastro-enteritis.

Public health officials say children should stay off school for 48 hours after they have stopped being ill, and as a precaution, the school will be closed on Monday, 27 May.

Samples collected

The headmaster at Thorpe Willoughby, Alan Dibb, said: "They think it is one of these airborne viruses, which, when a child vomits, is spread readily around the vicinity.

"I guess that because we had several children who were sick at the school on Thursday, that is why we have now got so much of it."

Officials from Selby council are investigating

Environmental health officials from Selby District Council have been at the school collecting samples.

A hundred pupils and 13 staff at the main school have been infected.

More than half the children and some staff at a pre-school centre close to the school are also ill, bringing the total number hit by the virus to almost 160 people.

Mr Dibb said that in his 20 years as a school head, he had never experienced anything like the viral outbreak before.