PARENTS of a girl who was pricked with a hypodermic needle were last night facing an anxious wait to see if she had contracted anything from it.

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

When she tried to take the needles away from him, 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 doctor's."

Stephanie is now on antibiotics and is awaiting the results of blood tests to see if she has contracted the liver disease, hepatitis B.

She has to go back to the doctors in a week's time and will have to have further tests in six months' time.

Her father, Shayne, 32, said: "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."

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.

She said: "This is a well-known problem. It is about time something was done and this estate tidied up."

PC Shaun Goad, beat officer for the Woodhouse Close Estate, said he would be going to schools in the area to try to educate youngsters about drugs and what to do if they find syringes.