ANTI-VACCINE protesters reported to have confronted pupils leaving school have been condemned.

A small group of protesters gathered to outside Furness Academy in Barrow to spread false claims about the Covid vaccine, according to eyewitnesses.

It was reported that one protester confronted children telling them the vaccine would ‘kill you’.

Other protesters were seen trying to hand out leaflets.

The Government is weighing up whether to roll-out the vaccine to 12 to 15-year-olds, with jabs possibly being administered within schools.

It came days after another incident in which protesters rallied against the jab outside the children’s play area at Barrow Park.

Barrow MP Simon Fell condemned the school incident.

He said: “This is disgusting and shameful.

“We’ve seen recently that anti-vaxxers have been putting up posters with razor blades taped to the back of them to harm anyone who attempts to take them down.

“There is no rational evidence for any of their claims, and far from keeping people safe, their actions are actually putting people in danger.”

The UK’s chief medical officers are currently drawing up advice to Government on whether children aged 12 to 15 should be vaccinated after the JCVI said the margin of benefit from vaccinating healthy children was too small to say they should receive a jab.

Sir Andrew Pollard, a leading paediatrician whose team developed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, said: “As was said by JCVI just last week, there’s a marginal benefit in vaccinating other children.

“But the real problem for children at this moment is the psychological impact of Covid, the fact that they’re missing school and their education is suffering.

“And what we’ve got to get right here is our behaviours and how we manage them and keep them in school rather than focus on the vaccines as the solution to that, because the vaccination will have a very marginal benefit to them as individuals.”

Last Saturday a placard-waving small group of three people protested against vaccinating teenager in Barrow Park.

It drew alarm from one eyewitness who said it ‘shouldn’t be happening where kids are playing’.

Cumbria’s public health director has repeatedly assured people the vaccine is safe.

He said: “Vaccination is safe and effective, and is the way that we’ll be able to get life back to normal.

“It’s really important to get vaccinated to protect yourself and those around you who may be more vulnerable.

“Nearly 90 per cent of those eligible in Cumbria have now been vaccinated, which is fantastic, but not enough to stop the virus spreading.”

Some 85.7 per cent of people in Barrow have received the first dose of the vaccine, according to government figures. Nearly 79 per cent have had both jabs.