A horrified passer-by who found needles and spatters of blood in the cubicle of a seaside public toilet says she initially thought she had entered a murder scene.

The gruesome discovery was made by 20-year-old Ashleigh Clark at the 24-hour lavatories in Central Parade, Herne Bay, last night.

“I thought somebody would be on the floor because I’ve never seen blood splattered all over a wall before,” she said.

Blood and needles in the cubicle of a public toilet in Central Parade, Herne Bay

“It was disgusting – the place looked like a murder scene. I first thought about calling the police.

“There were also needles on the floor and one down the toilet.”

Ms Clark believes the needles had been used to inject heroin.

“This shouldn’t be happening in a public toilet because a child could have gone in there and found it,” she added.

“I’ve used the toilets before and they’re normally quite dirty, but never anything like that. I definitely won’t be going back in there any time soon.”

Ms Clark shared a video of the cubicle on a Herne Bay residents Facebook group.

The public toilets are run by Canterbury City Council. The local authority’s spokesman, Rob Davies, says the cubicle was cleaned at 10.30pm that evening.

“We had a report of this incident yesterday evening at around 9.30pm,” he said.

“Our toilets contractor was on-site cleaning up at 10.30pm - only 20 minutes after the video was posted online.”