Parents of a little girl who was pricked with hypodermic needle are now facing an anxious wait to see if she has contracted anything from the scrape.

Ten-year-old Stephanie Salter was playing with her four-year-old cousin when the little boy found five used syringes in bushes outside her home in Lusby Crescent, Bishop Auckland.

When she tried to take the needles away from the youngster he accidentally pricked her on the finger with one of them.

Stephanie's mother Sharon, 29, said: "He had four in his pocket and one in his hand. When Stephanie told me what had happened we called the police and went straight to the doctors."

Stephanie is now on antibiotics and is now waiting for the results of blood tests to see if she might have contracted the liver disease hepatitis B.

She will have to go back to the doctors in a weeks time but will have to have further tests in six months time.

Her angry dad Shayne, 32, said: "At the end of the day we don't know what the outcome is going to be. It's frightening. It is a sad state of affairs when you cannot let your kids play outside their front door.

"Chemists are taking in dirty needles and giving out clean ones all the time. These people are wandering around chucking their needles wherever they want. It is not their own lives they are risking. It is everybody else's before they have even started. They are not thinking about the kids."

Mrs Salter, a care worker, said the couple have lived in their home on the Woodhouse Close Estate for about two-and-a-half years but now they are desperate to move on.

She said: "They are finding needles around here all the time. It was only a couple of weeks ago when the council were cutting bushes and cleaning up in Ramsey Crescent after needles were found.

"This is a well-known problem it is about time something is done and this estate is tidied up."

Last night PC Shaun Goad, beat officer for the Woodhouse Close Estate, said "We would once again urge drugs users to dispose of any syringes safely and use the facilities provided and open to them."

He said he will be going to schools in the area to try and educate youngsters about drugs and what to do if they find syringes.