Police have praised two schools that have written to parents warning them after some of their pupils were targeted via the social media app Snapchat.

Detective Inspector Jenny Beattie praised staff at William Howard School in Brampton and Stanwix School in Carlisle after they wrote to parents expressing their concerns.

Snapchat is an app that allows people to send pictures and videos to one another.

Both schools say that "unsavoury" messages were sent to some of their pupils with staff at Stanwix School contacting the police.

DI Beattie said: "Schools taking the opportunity to warn pupils and parents about the potential dangers online is welcomed.

"It is well documented that there are offenders who will seek to target and engage with children over social media and the internet generally. There is a very real danger of children where a line of communication is open between children and people they do not know online.

"We work closely with partner agencies in order to combat such dangers and proactively seek to bring offenders to justice.

"In our efforts to make young people more aware of the dangers, we conduct numerous engagement opportunities with schools, youth groups, parents and children in which to offer expert advice on ways to stay safe.

"We urge parents to take an interest in their children’s online behaviour and to report any suspicious and inappropriate incidents on 101."

Kuldip McMullan, headteacher of Stanwix School, said: "Recently, unsavoury messages on Snapchat have been reported to us by our children, these were serious enough to be passed on to police and are being dealt with accordingly.

"The police have said that they keep records of any such social media behaviour.

"Stanwix School would strongly recommend that children do not use any social media forums that is designed for older children."