A man whose son's electric quad bike went up in flames is warning of the dangers of these 'toys'.

Chris Hodgkinson and his wife took their two children to Ladycross Quarry, near Slaley, to use their electric motorbike and quad - bought as Christmas and birthday presents.

Just minutes after the motorbike Chris' daughter had been riding stopped working, the quad that seven-year-old Will was on caught alight.

"I couldn't believe it", said Chris, of Stocksfield. "You don't expect something like that from a child's toy.

"It was an odd day, to say the least. Ironically, the motorbike had also stopped working.

"The one thing I'm really pleased at is that my son wasn't actually on it at the time. If he was moving, he probably wouldn't have realised it was smoking.

"The blessing was that he was stood still on it and realised that it was smoking.

"The flames were licking off the top of the quad bike - we couldn't do anything.

"We had to just let it burn and keep everybody away from it. Once it got going, it wasn't worth risking or getting hurt from it."

Chris had first thought his son was joking - until he saw the damage for himself - after he and his daughter had returned to the car to put the motorbike away.

He added: "I want people to be aware of this kind of thing.

"Now that I've seen that happen, do I really want another one?"

The fire service attended the incident as the flames had spread to the surrounding grassland.

Chris said, ironically, the firefighters who attended told him that they had been learning of the dangers of the increasingly popular electric ride-ons only that morning, and warned him what other problems they can pose if they blow up on charge.

The father is now advising other parents to keep on top of maintenance and ensure the items they buy are of the highest quality.

Efforts to contact manufacturer Whirlwind have been, so far, unsuccessful, with a 'file not found' error message appearing on its website. Amazon stock the brand.