Teachers need to be given greater powers to search pupils for items they think could be used to cause violence or disrupt schools, the British Conservatives said today.

The call comes after the party said police figures showed that officers had been called into schools 2,702 times in the last two years to deal with arson attacks, or almost four incidents every day.

Tory Shadow Children's Secretary Michael Gove said teachers should be given more power to deal with disruptive pupils.

"The large number of arson attacks, on top of all the other problems in schools, is deeply worrying," he said.

"We would also give headteachers the power to ban any items they think may cause violence or disruption and abolish the current government guidance which tells teachers not to search children who refuse to be searched."

A report by the government's school behaviour advisor last year called for teachers to be given greater legal powers to search pupils for drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.

Teachers were given the legal right to search schoolchildren for knives and other dangerous weapons in 2007 and ministers said they would accept the recommendations.

Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said headteachers and teachers should be able to search pupils who they felt might harm themselves or others.

"However, school staff need to be protected from the burden of having to prove why they lawfully confiscate items, and also from any unreasonable complaints directed at them after the event from parents and pupils," she said.

"If this does not happen school staff will be reluctant to challenge pupils for fear of reprisals."