HACKERS who targeted a Hereford school stole more personal information than first thought, the headteacher has said.

The Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School, in Hampton Dene Road, initially played down the cyber attack, saying no personal information had been compromised.

But headteacher Martin Henton later admitted that pupils' records, including their names, ages and addresses had been posted on the dark web by hackers.

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The dark web is a hidden part of the internet where users can communicate anonymously.

But now, Mr Henton says even more data has been stolen.

"We were recently made aware that as a result of the cyber-attack, there has been a breach of some school information," Mr Henton said in a letter to parents and carers.

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"As our investigations have progressed into the information breached, we have found that, in addition to our present school community, some information relating to past students has also been breached."

He said that the school was in a position to confirm that student information "may have been posted for some students" on October 27.

That information included full name and address, unique pupil number, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, additional SEN information, multi-agency safeguarding hub reports and police incident reports.

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Apologising for the distress caused, Mr Henton added: "As a school, this is a deeply concerning and distressing time for us in that personal and confidential information has been breached and published in this way.

"Unfortunately, it is not possible to ascertain exactly how much of the data has been copied or shared and in that respect the breach is currently uncontained."

Detective Chief Inspector Tony Garner said West Mercia Police is working closely with the school after the cyber-attack.

"Our cybercrime unit is carrying out enquiries into the attack and we’re working with our partners."

He added: "We’re working to establish the nature of the information that may be affected to ensure any necessary safeguarding measures are put in place and any future risk is managed.”