SQUATTERS have raided a school on a white-owned farm in Zimbabwe and kidnapped 17 children, it emerged yesterday.

They were taken away for political "re-education", but the Commercial Farmers' Union claimed that the girls among them were sexually harassed.

Although farm squatters, who now occupy almost 1,200 properties, are blamed for more than 2,400 recorded cases of assault and at least five murders, this is the first incident of this kind. Local residents accused the police of failing to respond to their pleas for help.

Twenty invaders, armed with guns, axes and knives, have been occupying Stoneridge Estate, 10 miles south of the capital, Harare. The CFU said the gang attacked Blackfordby school on Saturday night and seized 10 girls and seven boys, aged between 12 and 14.

A local resident, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said the terrified children were dragged to the squatters' camp, about a mile from the school, which is on Stoneridge's land.

He said: "We heard them screaming. Then I heard two gunshots. The children later told me that the men had fired shots over their heads to frighten them."

The mob forced the children to dance and chant the slogans of President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party.

"They were taken for political re-education. We could hear them singing. People who work at Stoneridge and live in a village near the squatters' camp heard the tearful children chanting: "Forward with Comrade Mugabe, forward with Zanu-PF," the resident said.

Then the girls were singled out and, according to the CFU, were "harassed and fondled" by the squatters.

"It was terrible, there was nothing we could do. I fear to go near those people at the camp," said the resident.

Police arrived on the scene within two hours of the kidnapping, but were in no hurry to free the captives. After they had suffered a three-and-a-half hour ordeal, the children were released, but the squatters demanded that their parents must surrender in return.

The resident said: "The parents were taken to the camp. They were forced to spend the whole night there. Some were tortured."

Police allowed the parents to be driven into the squatter camp and did nothing while the captives were detained and beaten until Sunday morning.

The resident said: "They did not help. They were just watching. I found it hard to believe."

Because Mr Mugabe has publicly supported the squatters, police are reluctant to act against them and their failure to uphold the law has become the most disturbing feature of the farms crisis.

The president has quickly contradicted promises by government ministers that the invaders would be removed and the crisis, which began in February and has affected almost 1,700 farms, shows no sign of ending.

4 August 2000: Squatters seize farm rescuers
3 August 2000: Protest strike halts Zimbabwe
2 August 2000: Mugabe agency 'hired assassin to kill editor'
1 August 2000: Mugabe adds 2,000 white farms to 'hit-list'
28 July 2000: Who is Mugabe? ask land grab warlords
27 July 2000: Zanu-PF seeks to rein in squatters
17 February 2000: Mugabe will speed up seizure of white farms
21 January 2000: Mugabe moves nearer to seizing whites' land