POLICE are investigating a security hoax after a bogus safety warning was issued to a university.

Staff at the University of Winchester said they received a warning claiming to be from Hampshire police that a potentially dangerous person was at large and could be on the Sparkford Road campus.

The university then broadcast the message to lecturers and students and ordered security to patrol the campus.

But police denied sending any message and it was |quickly removed by the university.

A spokesman for the university said: “We were informed by the police the information on the safety message was not accurate, therefore the message should be removed.

“The message was issued by our security team as a precaution. As soon as we knew the information was incorrect the message was removed.”

A police spokesman added: “We are speaking with the university to find out where this message came from.

“But there was not anyone out running around Winchester who is dangerous.

“Having spoken to our control room and officers on patrol there was been no incident of this sort at all.”