COMPUTER equipment worth thousands of pounds has been returned to a Tiverton school, following a police raid on two nearby addresses.

Excited children were reunited with the IT equipment when police visited Castle Primary to return the missing hi-tech kit last Friday.

Last week's Gazette reported on the theft of desktop computers, laptops and digital cameras from Castle Primary School during a break-in.

Virtually all the items stolen, including two computers, two monitors, a projector and a laptop, were recovered within a day of the appeal for information appearing in the newspaper.

Castle Primary School headteacher David Barnes said: "We are absolutely delighted.

"There would have been a financial impact on the school if we had needed to buy replacement equipment.

"The children are very happy to get these items back. They were using words like 'upset', 'scared' and 'a bit angry' to describe how they felt about someone breaking in to their school.

"There was glass everywhere in teacher Mrs Condon's classroom, even in the books, and so they had to move to another classroom until it had been tided up."

Janie Butterwith, who is responsible for the school's IT, said staff and children were "euphoric" about the police's success in recovering the goods.

She said: "We had spent a lot of time approaching suppliers for quotes to replace the equipment and teachers had to adapt their lessons."

Sgt Rob Curtis, neighbourhood team leader for Tiverton, said: "We have recovered the vast majority of the items.

"We received information from a member of the public, we identified the place where the suspect could be living and we went there and found numerous computers and other items stored there."

Sgt Curtis said officers then visited a second address, where they found laptops and arrested two people.

"We were very pleased to get the equipment back and return it to the school, so minimal disruption was caused to their education," he said.

Sgt Curtis explained the police were in the process of carrying out a full security audit with the school, to reduce the risk of the school becoming a victim of crime in the future.

Investigating officers said they had been able to return items quickly because the school had UV- marked them and retained serial numbers.

Police have arrested two men, aged 29 and 33, who are currently on police bail.