A 13-year-old girl sparked a major alert when she skipped lessons at her school - and posed as a pupil at another school.

Now the mother of Danielle May is demanding to know how her daughter was able to sit through two lessons while police were preparing to carry out a helicopter search for her.

Danielle, a Year 8 pupil at St Joseph's Catholic College in Manningham, Bradford, left her home at Buttershaw in her school uniform as normal.

But her mother, Anne Tummons, was alerted by a friend of Danielle who told her she had not got on the school bus.

Miss Tummons, 32, phoned the school and was told Danielle had not attended, so she called police.

She said: "I was panicking. Danielle had been verbally bullied by a couple of other girls at school but she said she was sorting it out.

"I couldn't understand why she hadn't turned up at school. She had never played truant before."

Miss Tummons, of Edge End Gardens, searched the Buttershaw area and then decided to go to Buttershaw High where an older friend of her daughter was a pupil.

She said: "I saw another friend of my daughter near the school gates and was explaining what had happened and she said She's here, she came to school this morning.' "I told a member of security staff on the gates who contacted a teacher on a walkie talkie. A member of staff then came and told me they had found her. She was being taught in class.

"Danielle told me she had gone into the school at the normal time with a friend after changing into a Buttershaw uniform, and went into the classroom. She sat there with a friend until a teacher came up and she said she was a new pupil.

"She had no paperwork or proof with her but she wasn't asked any questions. She was asked to get a yellow slip and give it to the form teacher who told her to give it to all the teachers during lessons.

"She was with 15-year-old Year 10 pupils. At the time I was grateful I had found her safe, but now I am shocked that she was able to get in the school."

Miss Tummons, who also has a seven-year-old girl and a boy aged four, said: "If I hadn't gone there I think she would have made it through the day.

"I am concerned that this could happen."

She said Danielle had not wanted to go to her own school last Wednesday morning because of problems with other girls and her friends had joked about her going to Buttershaw.

"I don't know why she did it," Miss Tummons said. "She seemed happy and normal that morning, it came out of the blue."

A spokesman for Buttershaw High confirmed a girl wearing full school uniform had entered the school on Wednesday and gone into a vocational lesson.

She said: "She was in collusion with two of our students and informed the teacher that she was a new pupil. As the teachers changed, the message was passed that she was a new pupil and therefore the teachers kept her in class.

"Teachers cannot leave class while they are teaching but they would have checked she was a new pupil with the attendance office later.

"We were alerted by the girl's mother that her daughter was in school and she was immediately found and returned to her mother.

"We have spoken to our students concerned, and with their parents. They have been reprimanded and made aware that they shouldn't be bringing in people from other schools.

"We are concerned about this but a school isn't a closed place. We are a large school with 1,500 students and she was in full uniform.

"We do have security and systems in place and staff would have checked on it.

"She wasn't causing any problem, she was quite enjoying the lessons. If she had been a problem she would have been found out earlier."

Sergeant Mohammed Farooq, of Bradford South Police, confirmed officers had been informed of Danielle's disappearance by her mother and they had followed normal procedures, which included patrols searching the area, informing neighbouring police divisions and the Neighbourhood Patrolling Team and sending a school liaison officer to her school to speak to her friends.

He said that depending on the nature and time of her disappearance they would have considered using the force helicopter.