A cruel hoax which threatened to blow up schools in Cumbria if they did not hand over cash was carried by disgruntled Minecraft gamers, according to reports.

About 400 schools and colleges across the country were affected by the hoax, including three in Cumbria.

Pupils from North Lakes Primary School in Penrith and Dowdales School, Dalton-in-Furness were evacuated after receiving the malicious email while Lakes College West Cumbria was also targeted.

The emails contained the following message: "We have sent a student in with a bomb. The bomb is set to go off in three hours.

"If you do not send money we will blow up the device. If you try to call the cops we will blow up the device."

Cumbria Police said the emails were "strongly believed" to be hoax but they did create cause real concern at the time.

They appeared to have been sent from VeltPvP - a gaming networking.

However, according to Sky News, it is alleged that the Minecraft gamers involved set up the emails to appear like they were from VeltPvP in order to smear their name and get it suspended.

But VeltPvP have denied any involvement in the incident.

A statement on their Twitter read: "We have nothing to do with the bomb threats that were sent out to the 400+ UK schools.

"We've been being harassed by a group of cyber criminals that are trying to harass us in anyway possible.

"We're extremely sorry for anyone who had to deal with this, but just know it's fake."