Rachel Beckford, 30, from Farnborough Close in Cramlington, was walking her dog along the beach at Seaton Sluice on Monday night with her husband Mark and their two children, two-year-old Ethan and five-year-old Ellie when they spotted the syringe.

"In the summer we all really like to go to the beach and take the dog with us because the kids really love it, but on Monday night my two-year-old son put his foot right next to a used syringe," she said.

"We were all walking along the beach with our shoes off, and Ethan narrowly missed this used needle.

"I just looked down and saw it right next to his foot, and then we all got off the beach straight away.

"I was horrified, I dread to think what would have happened if he had trodden on it.

"He was so close to it, we are lucky he missed it.

"He is only two-years-old, what if he didn't know not to touch it?

"There are signs up for the events on the beach for the children over the summer, and I had wanted to take my children along to them, but not now I'm terrified to go back."

She added: "When we saw the needle we all got straight off the beach and rang the council.

"Where there is one syringe, there are bound to be others.

"It just filled me with horror, I dread to think what could have happened if Ethan had stood on it – we would have had to take him to hospital right away and who knows what would have happened?

"If there are going to be children filling the beach over the summer holidays, they need to be made aware that there could be more used syringes there.

"I know it's not the council's fault, but it's not safe for children – or anyone – if there are needles there."

Blyth Valley Borough Council's head of Streetcare, Terry Gurr, said: "The beach is given a thorough machine clean every Thursday.

"We treat notification of dangerous items found on the beach as an emergency and staff are trained to recover items appropriately."