A 76-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of administering poison at a summer camp which led to eight children being taken to hospital, police said.

Police received reports of children feeling unwell at a summer camp in Canal Lane, Stathern, Leicestershire, on Monday.

Paramedics assessed eight children, who were taken to hospital as a precaution and have all now been discharged.

The suspect was arrested at the camp and remains in custody on suspicion of administering poison with intent to injure/aggrieve/annoy.

Detective Inspector Neil Holden said: “We understand the concern this incident will have caused to parents, guardians and the surrounding community.

“We are in contact with the parents and guardians of all children concerned.

“Please be reassured that we have several dedicated resources deployed and are working with partner agencies including children’s services to ensure full safeguarding is provided to the children involved.

“We also remain at the scene to carry out enquiries into the circumstances of what has happened and to continue to provide advice and support in the area.

“This is a complex and sensitive investigation and we will continue to provide updates to both parents and guardians and the public as and when we can.”

The force said it has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over what it said was the “circumstances of the initial police response”.

There is no evidence that malign activity was responsible for yesterday’s outage of air traffic control systems, the transport secretary has said.

Heidi Alexander said she has spoken with the chief executive of National Air Traffic Service (NATS), Martin Rolfe, and added that what happened was an isolated incident.

NATS has apologised for the IT problems after thousands of passengers suffered extensive travel disruption during one of the busiest times of the year.

The technical glitch led to more than 150 flight cancellations, leaving airlines reacting furiously.

Ms Alexander wrote on X: “I have spoken with NATS CEO Martin Rolfe who provided further detail on yesterday’s technical fault.

“This was an isolated event and there is no evidence of malign activity.

“I know that any disruption is frustrating for passengers.

“Flights are now resumed and I am grateful to airlines who are working hard to get people to where they need to be.

“I will continue to receive regular updates. Passengers should check with airlines before travelling.”

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Officials said a “radar-related issue” caused the air traffic control failure.

A spokesperson for NATS said: “This was a radar-related issue which was resolved by quickly switching to the back-up system during which time we reduced traffic to ensure safety.

“There is no evidence that this was cyber related.”

The problem occurred at NATS’ control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire, and affected the vast majority of England and Wales.

Aviation analytics company Cirium said 84 departures and 71 arrivals were cancelled to or from UK airports up to 10pm on Wednesday, with several flights diverted to other European airports.

There was limited disruption on Thursday, with a handful of British Airways flights cancelled because aircraft and crew were out of position.

Heathrow and Gatwick airports said they had resumed normal operations.

Affected passengers are unlikely to be entitled to compensation as the disruption was outside of airlines’ control, but they will be able to claim expenses for a reasonable amount of food and drink, a means to communicate and overnight accommodation if required.

Ryanair has called on Mr Rolfe to resign, claiming “no lessons have been learnt” since a similar systems outage in August 2023.

The airline’s chief operating officer Neal McMahon said: “It is outrageous that passengers are once again being hit with delays and disruption due to Martin Rolfe’s continued mismanagement of Nats.”

The mother of a 10-year-old girl who died from complications of measles has urged parents to have their children vaccinated amid a surge of cases.

Renae Archer was too young to have the MMR vaccine when she caught the infection at just five months old.

A decade later, she was diagnosed with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a very rare brain disease. She died in 2023.

Her mother Becky believes Renae might not have caught measles if more people had inoculated their children.

The warning comes as rates of vaccine uptake continue to fall. The recent death of a child with measles at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool put the focus on a surge of cases in a city with low levels of vaccination.

It has left communities with rates of vaccination below the 95% level seen to provide herd immunity, where enough people are protected to prevent the virus spreading.

Becky Archer said: “It does make me quite sad and angry because they are potentially putting their children at risk.

“We just want people to open their eyes to someone that’s actually been through it and not the nonsense that’s being spread out on social media or on telly.

“I just want people to be knowledgeable of how serious a situation can be.”

The latest figures on childhood vaccination show that coverage in the UK has been falling in recent years and is now below that target of 95% for all vaccines by age five.

The vaccination rate for England is lower than in other UK nations, and particularly low in London.

Just 60% in Hackney have had their full measles vaccination course by their fifth birthday, compared to 89.2% on average across Scotland – though the rate in Scotland has also fallen from 93% a decade earlier.

Outside of London, the North West now has among the lowest vaccination rates for most of the main childhood vaccines.

Liverpool has the lowest measles vaccination rate outside of London, with more than a quarter of children not completing a full MMR vaccination course by their fifth birthday, according to the latest NHS figures for 2023/24.

Seventeen cases of measles have been recorded at Alder Hey in recent weeks, and doctors are reassuring parents that the vaccine is safe, free and available.

The hospital’s chief nurse Nathan Askew said: “Measles is often thought of as just a routine childhood illness but actually it’s incredibly contagious.

“The problem is that when that’s passed on, particularly in schools, nurseries and other environments where children are close together, there’s a real problem with children becoming unwell.”

Low immunisation rates have been blamed on vaccine hesitancy among parents, but experts say a lack of information on the importance and availability of vaccines is also a significant factor.

At a catch-up clinic in Liverpool, parents including Natalia Figeuroa have been bringing their children in. She admits she lost track of her son’s vaccinations, but worries that parents are being confused.

“I think parents are trying to make the right decision but the misinformation that’s out there is overclouding their judgement,” she said.

“My child attends a specialist provision which is a school that carries many children with disabilities, physically and mentally, and it’s really hard to see that those kids could be exposed to an illness that is quite preventable with a vaccine.

“I’m hoping parents will start to think not only about their own children but those other children who cannot get vaccinations for numerous reasons.”

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Becky Archer was due to give birth the day she was told that Renae’s condition was fatal.

She died a few days later, and her mother believes she would want her story told.

“She was really caring person and she wouldn’t have wanted any other family to go through losing their child,” she said.