Horror clown craze: 77 reports to police in Shropshire over four weeks
More than 70 police reports were made about clowns in the county in the space of a month, new figures have revealed.
West Mercia Police have confirmed that it handled a total of 77 reports related to clowns in the past four weeks.
However, the force said it wanted to make clear that the figures relate to calls that mentioned the word "clown" and were not specifically linked to the scary clown craze.
The trend, which originally took hold in America, has recently crossed the Atlantic and seen pranksters across Britain dressing up as clowns to scare people.
Incidents dealt with included a 17-year-old girl who was arrested after jumping in front of a car last month while wearing a white clown suit. She was given a police caution for her behaviour in Hills Lane Drive, Madeley.
In Oswestry a clown was spotted lurking in an alley in Upper Church Street, near the town's Marches School. There were also reports of one near Grove School in Drayton and another of a clown chasing people in Muxton, Telford.
The force has issued a statement saying: "West Mercia Police has received 44 calls in Shropshire and 33 calls in the Telford area that have mentioned the word 'clown' between October 4 and November 4.
"A large number of these calls have been reports of people seeing pictures of clowns on social media sites such as Facebook and one report refers to someone as being 'the class clown'."
Shrewsbury safer neighbourhood inspector Ed Hancox said: "We have been asking people to behave responsibly and consider the impact their actions could have on vulnerable people.
"While dressing up as a clown is not an offence, any attempts to deliberately harass, alarm or distress somebody is a public order offence that could result in arrest or a fixed penalty notice. We will be conducting reassurance patrols."
The craze saw police forces in the region advise residents not to encourage pranksters by liking social media pages dedicated to clowns.
The trend has also had a very serious impact for some who make a living as children's entertainers. Bridgnorth-based Flip the Clown, who launched his act Flip, Dippy & Co more than 20 years ago, said: "All this is negative publicity."
