Children are risking their lives at Wem railway station by lifting warning barriers at the level crossing and cutting across the line, it has been claimed.

Wem resident Tom Edwards said he believed a child would be killed after he saw two young people make the dash across the line while the barrier was down this week.

He raised the alarm at a Wem Town Council meeting last night and said had the train not stopped at the station, there could have been a serious injury or worse.

The incident happened on Saturday at around 3pm.

Mr Edwards said: “I was waiting for the crossing to go up and to my horror there were three little lads, of school age, and one got under the barrier, lifted it up and went across. Fortunately the Shrewsbury train was stopped in the station at the time.

“The train driver pipped his horn as the second little lad went under and got out the other side.”

He said he could not believe what he had witnessed but fortunately the third youngster did not try to cross the track.

Mr Edwards said: “I know we can’t do anything about it now but we all know it’s dangerous.

“Children do cross the line in different places and we could have had a nasty accident.” He added if an express train was coming around the corner there would have been no way they would have heard it coming before it was too late.

Today the British Transport Police said the incident had not been reported to them and they had no recorded incidents at the Wem level crossing this month.

But a Network Rail spokeswoman urged people not to misuse crossings as too many people died.