Heavy duty violence erupted at the University of Bradford when rampaging school pupils waged war against each other.

Their weapons included a hydraulic chisel and battering rams, and the damage they inflicted was serious.

But it was all in the interest of science and engineering and at the end of an afternoon of organised mayhem they were dented - but triumphant.

Teams from five city schools entered purpose-built machines in the University's robot challenge - run along the lines of the TV Robot Wars competition.

And the machines were anything but pushovers, with hydraulics, heavy gauge body armour and a formidable array of weapons.

Like their counterparts battling in the TV programme, they asked no quarter and got none.

The teams had to compete in skittles, football and wacky races before the grand finale - all out war against each other.

Hanson School's team was finally picked as overall winner of the football, skittles and races and came second in the head to head.

Their robot, built on a modified wheelchair frame with wheelchair motors, included a gas-powered hydraulic flipper to turn enemy machines on their backs.

It took three months to build at a cost of about £500 and the 14-strong team was satisfied with the results.

Design team member Robert Watson said: "It's more of an all- round robot - it's got the weapons and its reasonably well equipped."

The judges of the competition, all BT engineers, finally decided the head to head winner was the Carlton Bolling College robot Phoenix, which won with ease - annihilating opponents with sheer strength despite losing its carbon dioxide-driven ram.

The event, part of the University's Science Week, was organised by David Ross, co-ordinator of the business education links for Bradford Council's education department.

"Originally there were eight teams, but two had technical problems before they arrived and one robot packed up when it got here," he said.

"But it all went very well."

Each school received a £500 grant from the Bradford & District TEC and they looked for technical help from local engineering businesses.

"It's all about turning youngsters' heads towards science and technology with hands-on experience which is fun and exciting," he said.

The teams from Beckfoot Grammar School, Wyke Manor Upper and Dixon CTC were all satisfied with their robots' performances during the afternoon.

And 13-year-old Nick Keith, one of the Dixon team captains, summed up the mood when he said with relish: "We didn't really win anything - but we did a lot of damage."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.