Two toddlers have been found wandering beside a busy road after escaping from a nearby nursery.

Busy Bees nursery in Derriford, Plymouth, said it was “devastated” to hear the children, including a three-year-old boy, were found unsupervised on Monday morning.

Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed their officers found the three-year-old on William Prance Road at around 11am, and “there were no records of any injuries”.

A spokesperson for Busy Bees said: “While we are relieved that both children returned safely to the centre, this situation clearly should not have happened and we are taking the fact it did extremely seriously.

“We are devastated that this was able to happen and a thorough investigation is now underway.

“We contacted the parents of the children involved, as well as all other parents at the nursery to explain the situation and we are working with the authorities and regulators to establish the facts and we will take appropriate action where required.”

The company’s operations director Anita Wilden added: “The safety and wellbeing of all children in our care is our highest priority and we have robust policies in place to ensure situations such as this do not occur.

“We have started our investigation and we will find out how this situation happened.

“Please be assured that if there are any steps we can make to further improve our procedures we will make those changes.”

Busy Bees owns 378 nurseries for children up to the age of five across the UK and Ireland.