Jesus College has denied that its iconic horse statue was stolen after a hoax email pretending to be the head porter told students they had a two hour amnesty to return it.

All undergraduates at the college received an email this afternoon (7/1) claiming to be Simon Durrant, the head porter. The email said: “as of the early hours of this morning, the Jesus College horse has gone missing - as a result of suspected theft by graduating students

“We have taken the difficult decision this afternoon to announce an amnesty for the Jesus College horse statue. If the horse is returned within the next two hours, we will forgo disciplinary action against the perpetrators.

“We hope that those in question make the right decision”.

A spokesperson for the college told Varsity the horse had been in the college all day and they had no idea how the email had been sent.

While the email was signed off by an official Jesus email, it was sent from a student email account.

Students and alumni were initially left confused by the email, taking to social media to question how the supposed thieves had managed to steal a large bronze horse without the porters knowing.

One academic at the college said on twitter: “Had been wondering why we’d received an email from the college about a phishing scam, but really this is an *exceptional* phishing scam...”

Yesterday Jesus students graduated from the college, walking in a procession to Senate House led by Durrant in his role as head porter.