Boy, 4, seriously hurt by dumped portable barbecue in Liverpool park

A four-year-old boy has been seriously injured after falling onto a portable barbecue, which had been abandoned in a park.

Jess Turnock, from Halewood, said she was enjoying an afternoon with her son Finnick and friends in Calderstones Park in Liverpool, when the incident happened on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old said Finnick fell onto a metal grille, which had been detached from a barbecue and then dumped in a shady area of grass next to a bin.

She said the incident left her son with four gashes on his calf and he had to be taken to Alder Hey Children's Hospital for treatment.

Warning: This article contains an image of injuries

Ms Turnock said: "Someone had taken a barbecue apart... and left it to the side [of a bin].

"He's stood on it, it's flipped up and it's caused four gashes across his calf. He fell over onto it."

She said her son was "inconsolable" and they did not leave hospital until after midnight on Tuesday.

Ms Turnock, an operating department practitioner at Aintree Hospital, said it had been a shock after they had gone to the park with the aim of having "a gorgeous afternoon with friends".

Ms Turnock and her friends are urging people not to leave rubbish, such as disposable barbecues in public places.

"People don't think of the consequences - they just don't want to take their rubbish home but, from being the victim of this, and my little boy, think about the consequences that are happening," she said.

Not disposing of such rubbish responsibly was "just sheer laziness sometimes", she added.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service's head of community safety, Ged Knock, issued a warning about the need to dispose of portable barbecues properly.

He said the use of barbecues was prohibited on beaches and in parkland in Sefton and Wirral.

Mr Knock told BBC Radio Merseyside barbecues posed a fire risk, with "real dangers not only for humans but for the environment".

He urged anyone using portable barbecues to do so in a safe and authorised space, on flat level ground and potentially on bricks or off the grass.

Used barbecues must be extinguished and doused with a two-litre bottle of water to cool them down before being safely and responsibly disposed of in a bin, he added.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.