A dad says his "blood ran cold" when he saw his young son running towards what looked like a "ring of knives" around a lamppost.

The anti-climb device, designed to protect CCTV cameras from vandalism, broke loose and slipped down the pole next to the children's play park at Faversham Recreation Ground.

The dad-of-one spotted the hazard when he took his three-year-old son to the park this morning.

He said: "It made my blood run cold seeing my son running towards it.

"It's so sharp. It's like a ring of knives around the lamppost at toddler eye-level, and wouldn't take much to cause a serious injury."

He reported the fault to Swale Borough Council (SBC), but took to Facebook to urge other parents to ensure their children steered clear of it until it was fixed.

The CCTV camera was installed at the park in 2020 in a bid to cut down on increasing crime rates.

The spikes usually sit just below the camera, several feet off the ground, to protect it from vandalism.

An SBC spokesperson said this afternoon: “Our contractors are on their way to fix the anti-climb device that has slipped down a CCTV pole in Faversham Rec.

“This has never happened before and our contractors will check the device once they arrive on site, while the control room reviews the CCTV footage from last night, to get a better understanding of how this has happened.

“Thank you to the people who reported this today and enabled us to get onto it as quickly as possible.”

It had been fixed by 5.30pm.