German policeman "arrests" teacher in class

BERLIN, Nov 24 (Reuters) A German policeman handcuffed a primary school teacher to show her class how he would make an arrest -- and then discovered he had left the keys at home.

The class of six- and seven-year-olds at the school in the western town of Saerbeck were delighted to see the officer clap the cuffs on the teacher during a road safety lesson.

But when he came to remove them, he found he had no key and had to call for back-up. ''The children applauded, and the teacher thought it was all part of the lesson, so she went along with it,'' a police statement said yesterday.

Eventually another officer arrived with a bunch of keys.

Only then did the teacher realise that anything had gone wrong.

Reuters TB VP0415