POLICE were called to a playground fight involving four girls.

Three police cars arrived at the Harwich School after they were called by a parent of one of the youngsters involved.

Four teenagers were arrested, and one was allegedly kept in a cell for eight hours.

Three have been released without charge and one has been bailed pending further inquiries.

Susan Dove, of King Georges Avenue, Dovercourt, was contacted by her 16-year-old daughter, who she asked not to be named, to say she was being arrested.

Mrs Dove, 41, said: “The police stormed in and arrested them.

“She was kept in a cell in Colchester for eight hours, but she didn’t do anything.

“They let her and her friends go without charge.

“She is traumatised. They are only young. Now she is having nightmares.

“There was no need for what they went through. It should have been a school matter. It was really heavy handed.”

Nigel Mountford, headteacher at the school in Hall Lane, Dovercourt, said incidents of this type would typically be dealt with by the school, but a parent had called the police.

He said: “Normally police don’t turn up for things like that.

“We would never have involved the police in an incident like that, but when they get involved we have to back off.

“We have our own behaviour policy, but police involvement takes precedence.”

The ambulance service was not called to the incident.

Helen Cook, spokeswoman for Essex Police, said: “We cannot talk specifically about this case as there is one person on bail while investigations continue.

“However, we can confirm four people were arrested.”

When asked about the length of time Mrs Dove’s daughter spent in custody, Mrs Cook continued: “In general, police will arrest people in order to question them about their involvement, if any, in an incident.

“This will take some time to complete especially if there are a number of people to interview.

“Any juvenile person held in custody will be regularly checked with regard to their welfare. This is at least every half an hour.

“And an appropriate adult will be called on to support them throughout their time in custody.”