Dog and woman hurt by scattered rusty nails

Thousands of rusting roofing tacks have been found strewn across a site used for car boot sales

A woman and her dog were injured by rusty roofing tacks that had been thrown across a car boot sale site ahead of its reopening, a council leader has said.

Jeremy Hilton, leader of Gloucester City Council, said thousands of nails were scattered across Hempsted Meadow in "a deliberate and dangerous act of vandalism".

He said they posed a risk of tetanus to anyone who stepped on them, and could have caused delayed road crashes if car tyres had been punctured.

"We know a woman and her dog got injured by one of the rusty nails but if someone had a puncture on the M5 having been there, we don't know what the consequences would be," he said.

Mr Hilton said "everybody was excited" for the reopening of the car boot sale site on 20 July but the event had to be postponed until 27 July after the tacks were discovered on Saturday.

He said security measures at the site on David Hook Way would be increased in the run-up to the rescheduled reopening.

The city council has been helping operator Capital Boot Sales to clear the site, using large magnets to lift the nails.

"This could have risked people's lives," Mr Hilton said.

"It was really careless and I don't understand the mindset of anybody who would want to spread rusty nails, strategically placed, where they knew there'd be cars coming in and out of the site."

He added it looked like the nails came from a "post-restoration or demolition project".

Mr Hilton said the council is working with the site's operators to remove the nails with large magnets

The council had closed the site last winter to work on it and because the lease was up for renewal.

In May, it announced Capital Boot Sales had been appointed to run the car boot.

Gloucestershire Police asked anyone with information about the incident to get in touch.