School Labelled 'Hell On Earth' On Google Maps

Image copyright Google

A school was labelled on Google Maps as "Hell on Earth" in what is thought to have been a joke by one of its pupils.

Hornsea School and Language College in East Yorkshire appeared on the website labelled as "Hornsea Prison & Hell on Earth".

It is believed a pupil submitted the name change to the search engine and it was accepted.

The school issued a statement saying the unauthorised listing had since been removed.

Place names can be suggested to Google by anyone but must be verified by the business owner, to ensure they are the only ones who can edit them.

The entry has since been changed and the school said the identity of the person responsible for the prank was known.

Head teacher Steve Ostler said: "We recommend that all schools take ownership of their Google map icon to prevent any copy-cat behaviours."

Hornsea School and Language College is a secondary comprehensive founded in 1958 and takes pupils from Hornsea and the surrounding area.

A Google spokesperson said: "Allowing users to suggest information provides comprehensive and up-to-date info, but we recognise there may be occasional inaccuracies suggested by users.

"When this happens, we do our best to address the issue as quickly as possible."