A TRIP to a council playing field nearly ended in tragedy for a six-year-old girl who was dragged across the ground by an illegally-tethered horse.

Georgina Coates got her leg caught in the horse's chain when she went to play with her brother on a recreation ground yards away from her home in Brockwell Court, Coundon Grange, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on Tuesday.

She had gone to stroke a Shetland pony grazing with the black and white horse on land which will soon become a ball court for village youngsters.

Yesterday, her angry father, Malcolm, failed to have the animals moved - despite appeals to landowners Wear Valley District Council.

Neighbour, village councillor Margaret Ingledew, accused the animals' owners of taking advantage of complex rules relating to stray horses ,and called for a change in the law.

Mr Coates said: "My daughter could have been killed. She was playing in a place which should have been safe, but she came home screaming and crying.

"Nobody will do anything about it. The police cannot act because it is council land and the council hasn't got a horse catcher.

"The animals simply shouldn't be there. Will we have to wait until someone is killed before somebody does something about it?"

Mrs Ingledew said: "The little girl is lucky to be alive. It is completely wrong to put horses on a playing field. Nobody knows who they belong to. They arrived on Monday.

"It is very frustrating. The only answer is to have a licensing system so that owners are accountable.

"They should prove that they have land to keep them on before they are allowed to have them."

Council leader, Councillor Olive Brown, advised people concerned about the stray horse issue to lobby their MPs.

She said: "A change in the law is the only way to tackle this. We are trying to get a horse catcher, but whenever we do the horse people intimidate them and they don't stay.

"If we take them away, they find out where they are and take them back."