A school was locked down and called police after a communications company accidentally told it there was an armed intruder on site.
Waikanae Primary School Principal Bevan Campbell said the false alarm came in a text from School-Links, a company that provides a text messaging service for the school.
He said the company told him the text had been written during a demonstration to another school, but it was not clear how it was actually sent.
School-Links said human error was at fault and it has apologised to the school.