Pupils and staff had to be warned not to come into contact with an Irvine secondary school's water after live microorganisms were detected in it.

Council chiefs say contractors have now completed cleaning and disinfection of the water system at Irvine Royal Academy which was finished over the weekend.

However they say futher testing will have to take place over the coming days to ensure the water is safe for pupils and staff at the school.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “As part of our water quality testing regime, low concentrations of a microorganism have been detected within the water system at Irvine Royal Academy.

“The risk this poses is low, however, the health and wellbeing of pupils and staff is our absolute priority.

“Contractors successfully completed the cleaning and disinfection of the school’s water storage tanks over the weekend.

“We are confident the works carried out will resolve the issue but further rigorous testing will take place to ensure the water supply is absolutely safe.

“This will take a number of days and until then we will be providing bottled water as an alternative to drinking direct from the school supply and also hand sanitiser for handwashing.”