Children have been warned not to go outside after a wolf escaped from a sanctuary near a school.

Police have told members of the public not to approach the animal which is on the loose from the UK Wolf Conversation Trust sanctuary in Beenham, near Reading.

Officers were called at 8am on Thursday to the scene near the centre in Picklepythe Lane.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: “Officers have sight of the wolf and are working with staff from the sanctuary to detain it.

“Do not approach the wolf if you see it.”

Officers are currently in Beenham, West Berkshire.At around 8am today the force received a call from a member of the…

Posted by Thames Valley Police on Thursday, January 18, 2018

Sian Champkin, whose husband works at Elstree Independent Boys Preparatory School in nearby Woolhampton, said pupils have been told not to go outside.

The 37-year-old said: “He phoned me to tell me about it because we have a child, a dog and a cat and not to go outside. The sanctuary is about a mile away as the crow flies.

“I was slightly shocked, nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Founded in 1995, the sanctuary currently has 10 wolves from the Artic and Northwestern breeds, living in four packs. Two of the packs are from Dartmoor and another from Quebec. The remaining wolves were born at the sanctuary.

Both the school and the sanctuary declined to comment.