blacklistednews.com | A frightening school shooting in England turned out to be fake, and was designed as a lesson to students about studying a crime scene.

Young students at a British school were terrified as they saw their science teacher gunned down before their eyes.

And were even more shocked to find that it was staged to teach them a lesson.

"It was all part of a role-play crime, but unfortunately some of the youngsters didn't get the information quickly enough that it wasn't real," Head teacher of Blackminster Middle School, Terry Holland, told the Evesham Journal.

Reports state the incident began when an alarm thought to be a simple fire drill sent students, aged 10 to 13, into the playground.

"They were standing in the playground, and then a man appeared in the distance holding a gun," said Vikki Woosey, whose son is in Year 6 at the school, according to London's Telegraph.

A science teacher was then "shot," and other staff members rushed to his aid.

"It was 10 minutes later that they told the children that it wasn't real, and that it was all a joke," another parent told the Telegraph. "I think its absolutely disgusting."

Several parents say their children were traumatized from the event, with many students venting their fears on Facebook, according to the Worcester News.

"I thought he really was dead," one student reportedly wrote.

"I don't ever want to go back there. NEVER," posted another.

Holland apologized for the incident, but also appeared to downplay the impact on its students.

"There was a small number of children – maybe half a dozen – who were quite upset, and all the staff were immediately supportive and explaining to them there was nothing to be upset about," he said, the Worcester News reports.

The goal of the lesson was to show pupils how to investigate and collect evidence of a crime, Holland said.

"This was a violent crime, and that's something, on reflection, that was step too far," he added