A father has spoken of his horror after his eight-year-old son found a large machete “gleaming on the ground” in a park.

The terrified youngster found the large knife at Woolmer Green, in Laindon.

Aronchar Reid, the boy’s dad, who lives in Basildon, posted on Facebook his concerns about Basildon’s safety - and how he was told by police to hand it in.

He said: “It was awful really and I am still very annoyed at the fact I was told to bring it to the police station, as it was obviously a large weapon.

“A lady got it sorted for me and got the police to collect it. I just thought it could have ended up in the wrong hands because it was just in the park gleaming on the ground. It is a scary thought.

“Luckily my little boy brought it straight to me. It was worrying because there was the snow, someone could have slipped and fell on the weapon and hurt themselves.”

Caroline Shearer, who founded charity Only Cowards Carry after her son Jay Whiston was stabbed to death to raise awareness about the impact of knife crime, said it was fortunate the knife came to the right hands.

She said: “It’s just appalling for a child to find this in a park. It can have a significant impact on children. People hide knives so they can use them for fights later.

“There’s not enough police around, I think council needs to step up in community safety. Basildon Council has done really well on this.

“Once I found there was a knife hidden in my son’s grave. We have amnesty bins all around the county. For the past few months we have collected around 7,000 knives.

“There is a worrying trend of youth gangs, so our organisation goes to schools and educate children about the impact of knife crime.”

Ms Shearer said the organisation will be heading Basildon schools after Christmas to raise awareness about knife crime. The organisation also has plans to build a 30-foot sculpture, which will be made from the knives they have collected. The sculpture will be in Chelmsford, and it will have names of victims of knife crime.

An Essex Police spokesman said: “The machete was found in Woolmergreen on Tuesday. It was taken into custody and handed to the PSCO, where it will likely be destroyed.”

on Tuesday at around 9am.