A MONSTER terrapin - probably dumped when children tired of it after the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle craze of the 1990s - has been found lurking in a pond.

The sharp-clawed creature has grown from the size of 10p piece to the size of a dinner plate.

But far from being "heroes in a half shell" as the cartoon characters were labelled, pictured below, this meat-eating predator could be a nasty piece of work.

Eight-year-old Bradley Hughes and his three-year-old sister, Lauren, of Dalton, in Cumbria, were looking for frogs' spawn when they spotted the terrapin. Bradley revealed that he actually picked up the animal - and it was so big he needed both hands to keep hold of it.

"It was on the grass sunbathing and then when we tried to get a closer look it swam into the water," he said.

"But I waited, and when it came out of the again I realised what a monster it was. I had to hold it in two hands."

He added: "I don't want to tell people exactly which pond it was in because they might hurt it. I want it to go to a better place, like the zoo."

Karen Brewer, education and marketing manager of the South Lakes Wild Animal Park, in Dalton, said that, in winter, terrapins would hide at the bottom of ponds.

She said: "But as we are getting a bit of warmer weather now, it's probably been looking for food.

"It was likely abandoned by someone a few years ago. They can live for years and they can get pretty big."

She said terrapins are classified as a non-native species under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and cannot be released into the wild.

Anyone caught dumping them could face a prison sentence.

The Hero Turtles were human-sized inhabitants of New York City sewers known for their martial-arts skill and passion for deep-dish pizza.