Pupils release 4,000 hopping crickets into end-of-term buffet

A top private school is threatening to fine parents after pupils unleashed a plague of live crickets as an end-of-term prank.

More than 4,000 of the insects were released into the sixth-form common room at Exeter School, where a parents’ buffet was being held.

Amid chaotic scenes, staff at the £3,000-per-term school had to seal off the building and call in pest controllers.

Now headmaster Bob Griffin has warned pupils that the parents of the culprits could be asked to contribute to the £1,000-plus cost of the clean-up.

One sixth-former said: "It was mayhem in the common room, with crickets hopping and caretakers stamping everywhere. A massive cheer went up – all the senior staff wore fixed smiles."

"The head is still interviewing suspects. They are being told that their parents may be billed for cleaning costs. But no one has been accused, or excluded, because he can’t prove anything. If they try to bill parents, it won’t go down well."