A SHOCKING image of hundreds of children lying scarred and bleeding will launch a hard-hitting North-East safety campaign later this month.

About 500 pupils from schools in Gateshead will be transformed into the victims of horrific accidents, using special effects such as make-up and prosthetics.

The event has been organised by the Whoops! Child Safety Project, part of North-East charity, the Children's Foundation.

It aims to highlight the fact that 500 youngsters are killed every year through accidents, and raise awareness of the dangers youngsters face in the home, ahead of the school summer break.

Photographer Stan Gamester will shoot the picture montage on Wednesday, June 23, working with Corpus Christi RC Primary and Kelvin Grove Primary in Gateshead.

He will spend the rest of that week working on similar projects in nine other Gateshead schools with the end results exhibited across the North-East.

Whoops! project co-ordinator Susan Warlock said: "It is a mammoth task to co-ordinate this activity within 11 schools and to prosthetically make up 500 children in one morning.

"We are doing this because we think it is worth it, as it is only through education and awareness that we can hope to prevent serious accident or the loss of life."