A sea of heroin needles, burnt tin foil and a haul of other drug paraphernalia has been discovered in a drug den, a stone’s throw from a children’s nursery.

A soiled bed and smashed glass lay among the waste, with more than 60 disused needles strewn inside the disused town centre subway, in Folkestone.

And when a member of the Town Sprucer team uncovered the den in Middleburg Square one drug user sat oblivious to his presence, injecting what appeared to be heroin.

Sprucer Peter Phillips said: “I have never seen anything like this in my life it has clearly been here for a long time.

“It’s right next to a children’s nursery, it’s not sealed off. The public can go down there. Children can go down there.

“There must be more than 60 heroin needles.

“When we discovered the mess there was a person down there completely out of it.”

Mr Phillips said the scene makes him feel saddened and the rubbish is too dangerous to pick up.

The den, which is metres away from Precious Times nursery in Cheriton Road was discovered on Monday and has sparked shock and sadness among residents.

Mr Phillips added: “We clean the occasional needle off of the street but we’re not going to touch any of this.

“There were more than 60 needles and drug bags ripped open.”

A Shepway District Council spokesman said it is investigating who is responsible for the land and will soon remove the rubbish.

She added the drug den is not part of its street cleaning regime because it is ‘not land that is in general public use.’

“We would urge anyone with concerns about ‘drug dens’ to pass on these concerns to the council and to Kent Police before sharing them on social media so that action can be taken as quickly as possible,” she explained.

The Sprucer team help keep the town clean.

Kent Police has been approached for comment.