A giant badger is causing hysteria amongst pupils at a girls' school in Kent, it has been reported.
Teenagers at Folkestone School for Girls are apparently in hysterics and too scared to walk past certain areas of the school.
A parent, who did not want to be named, told the Kent Messenger: "It has been spotted several times within the grounds, scaring the living daylights out of the teenage girls."
The mother said the presence of the animal was brought up at a recent school assembly. On one occasion, the badger was spotted underneath one of the mobile classrooms and all the pupils were told to close the windows and not to leave until it was safe.
She added: "There were tales of it charging at a pupil and then sniffing her, but these are teenage girls who are full of drama. It is a giant badger and it is causing hysteria."
There is a badger set at the bottom of the school field, which the mother believes might have been disturbed by recent building work.
She said another badger from that group - not the outsize one - was spotted last Thursday night.
"I hope the giant badger and the others are captured humanely and moved as the school might start getting concerned about pupil safety," she said.
"Some of pupils are saying they are now too scared to walk past certain parts of the site in case a badger runs out and bites them.
"The point is not only to say why there are hundreds of screaming, hysterical girls but also to get people to sign the petition to prevent the government's badger cull."
The mum hopes to raise awareness of the petition calling for the government to reconsider its imminent badger cull, which already has more than 220,000 signatories.
Owen Leyshon, of the Romney Marsh Countryside Project, said badgers are 'actually very shy creatures'. "It is however, unusual to see them in the day as 99 per cent of them come out at night," he said.
However, school principal Tracy Luke meanwhile insisted the badger sett in the school grounds was 'well away' from any buildings.