AN end of term woodland walk turned into a nightmare for school pupils when they were attacked by a swarm of angry wasps.

The children from Stanton St Quintin Primary School and the village pre-school were walking in single file with teachers and parents on a footpath through Stanton Wood near Stanton St Quintin on Friday when a dog disturbed a wasps' nest in a rabbit hole.

Children screamed and fled in panic as wasps attacked.

Headteacher Rob Parsons said 27 pupils were stung at least once by the swarm. "It was a horrible, hellish situation,'' he said.

His own son James, ten, a pupil at the school, was stung 14 times on hands, head, feet and chest as he tried to protect fellow pupils from the insects.

Mr Parsons said: "He was very badly stung, he was trying to push the wasps off the other children and got stung as he did so.''

He said his son still has a badly swollen index finger as a result of the attack. "He was asking if he would have nightmares because of it all. I was in tears as a dad as much as anything else,'' he said.

Mr Parsons was at the front of the walk when the teachers rang him on his mobile phone to inform him of the situation. They then rang the school's administration officer Anita Druce who called the ambulance service.

Twelve paramedics, led by Chief Ambulance Officer Denis Lauder, raced to the school and arrived there just as the first children returned. They immediately began treating more than 28 children who had been stung.

Teachers Maggie Savin and Liz Slater managed to restore order to the rear and turned around to take the shocked children back to Stanton St Quintin School.

Four children who had been stung several times were taken to Chippenham Community Hospital as a precaution, but all wanted to return to school for the last day of term.

Wiltshire County Council's emergency planning unit was briefed and it began assessing what extra support the school might need. An educational psychologist was put on standby to treat cases of shock but was not required.

A council spokesman said: "It was technically a critical incident. We did not know how some of the children would react to the stings."

Mr Parsons, who had continued to walk at the front of the school party away from the wasps, later praised the bravery of several children who stayed in the vicinity of the wasps' nest to help brush the insects off younger ones and take them to safety.

He said: "I was very proud of the children for their calm approach, and very grateful to the parents and thankful to all the staff for their organisation.

"The emergency services where very efficient, supportive and pleasant with the children and helped keep their spirits up."

He had a letter from a parent on Tuesday thanking him and his staff for the way they dealt with the incident. "It was a dreadful experience but it couldn't have been dealt with any better,'' he said. "It goes to show what a good team we have here at the school.

For the children it was a frightening experience. Laura, 11, said: "Everywhere I looked there were wasps. I was wiping them off my arms and shirt, so I put on my jumper. Then I started wiping them off the little ones because they were screaming and crying."

Lydia, ten, said: "Everyone started screaming and loads of wasps came on to me and I ran away."

School governor Jenny Plummer checked the route of the walk the day before but noticed nothing amiss. She said the walk was carefully organised and the headteacher had insisted all children with allergies or asthma brought their medication with them.

The walk has been part of the school's end of year celebrations for ten years and Mr Parsons said he wants it to continue.