Hoax bomb delays A-level results

Mallusk mail centre workers were evacuated for two hours

Northern Ireland A-level students face a nail-biting wait after a hoax bomb at a postal sorting office affected the delivery of some results.

The alert at the Mallusk mail centre on the outskirts of Belfast led to the evacuation of the building for two hours in the early hours of Thursday.

The delay comes as Northern Ireland's latest A-level results were revealed to be better than ever.

Almost a third of students have won A grades - which is much higher than the national figure of 22.4%.

The delay means that some of the letters only went out at 0700 BST and did not make the usual delivery time.

Some post may still get through, however, it is likely to be Friday before everyone officially knows how they have done.

Royal Mail said 75% of normal dispatches had missed their slot because of the hoax bomb alert.

I cannot confirm that all that mail sent out to pupils will be received today Michael Kennedy Royal Mail A-levels 'better than ever'

Belfast still has a second delivery, however the further students live from the city the less likely it is they will receive their results by post.

A spokesperson for the Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) said he would encourage any pupil, who had not yet received their results, to get in touch with their school or college.

Michael Kennedy, the general manager at Royal Mail, said local sorting offices had been inundated with calls from anxious pupils.

"All the English or GB results will be delivered to all the schools today - the schools will have those results as normal," he said.

"The issue will be with the Northern Ireland results... whilst the schools have them, the notification that the schools send out to pupils will have been affected by the situation.

"So I cannot confirm that all that mail sent out to pupils will be received today."

He said pupils should contact their schools, which have all of the A-level results.

Students face a nail-biting wait for their results

The number of entries for A-level is up by 5%, the proportion of A grades is up by 1.5 percentage points to 30%, and girls have again attained more grade As than boys.

Critics say so many students are winning A grades it is becoming difficult to choose between job and college applicants.

However, educationalists say that as there is so much more information and help for teachers, it is no surprise that grades are improving.

Gavin Boyd, chief executive of CCEA , said: "I'm suggesting very, very strongly we are much better prepared for examinations. "We are very well used to the system here and we have a group of teachers who are very, very focused on getting the best possible results for their candidates."