IT could be several weeks before pupils at a Derbyshire special school are able to use their hall again after asbestos was discovered.

Up to 70 pupils at Alfreton Park Community Special School were sent home on Friday, two days after ceiling tiles worked loose in the main hall.

Now asbestos has been found in the girders holding the tiles in place.

The area was immediately sealed off and it will be two weeks before the asbestos can be removed and repairs are carried out.

It is not known if it the hall will be open in time for when pupils return in September.

Head teacher Rosemary McKenzie said it had been a very hectic time for everyone at the school.

She said: "We have been busy creating alternative ways of getting our able-bodied and less able-bodied pupils around the school without going through the hall.

"We have also had to make sure we can get treatment to pupils in cases of emergency.

"It has now been possible to create a sealed tunnel through the hall to make life easier.

"It is good we are breaking up next Thursday. But I think it is unlikely that any work will be finished before we return in September."

The school was due to be rebuilt before the Government pulled the plug on the national Building Schools for the Future programme a year ago.

Mrs McKenzie said: "Money will be spent repairing the hall ceiling but there are other huge problems around the school that need addressing."

Asbestos, which was installed to provide fire insulation in most buildings in the middle of last cen- tury, is safe if left undisturbed.

But when broken, it can release minute fibres which can settle in the lungs and cause long term cancerous conditions such as mesothelioma.