An investigation has been launched after a five-year-old Shropshire girl was pulled under a treadmill and left in agony at a council-run playscheme.

Niamh Harrison had three of her teeth smashed out in the incident, which happened at the Mary Webb Active Kids scheme in Pontesbury, which is run by Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council.

Council officials launched an investigation after Niamh’s father, Billy Rose, claimed scheme leaders had taken the children into an adult gym and let them play with the equipment.

He said: “She was playing in the gym on one of those big gym balls by a treadmill that some kids were playing on.

“They were putting it up to full speed and shooting things off it – shoes and things. She fell off the ball into the treadmill and was sucked underneath.”

Niamh’s mother, Tara Harrison, said she was disgusted by the way staff had acted during the incident, which happened on Tuesday. She claimed they had run out and left Niamh’s seven-year-old sister Chase to pull her out from under the treadmill.

Mr Rose said: “It’s made her extremely jumpy and nervous. She’s not at all like normal – her school report described her as such an outgoing girl.

“It’s awful. Under an industrial treadmill, she’s such a small girl it could have killed her.”

Alan Wallin, Leisure and Community Services Manager for Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council, confirmed that an investigation was under way but said he did not want to make any further comment on the incident at this time.

Mr Rose said he and Miss Harrison had chosen that playscheme because they had assumed it would be well run.

“We chose this one because we got the leaflet from school. It was a council scheme so we thought the girls should be safe there,” he said.

“The manager said they shouldn’t have been in the gym and he would run an investigation. The area manager said he couldn’t believe this had happened.”

By Pam Griffin