THREE children were refused entry to Blackpool Zoo because they live near a foot-and-mouth burial site.

Laura Waddell, seven, brothers Marc, three, and Billy, two, had looked forward to the trip for weeks.

But as they were walking through the gates with their parents, they were stopped by zoo staff and asked where they were from.

When RAF chef Garry Waddell, 41, said he had brought his family from Widdrington Station, Northumberland, the attendant told him he and his family were barred because they posed a foot-and-mouth risk to the animals.

The Waddells' village is next to a massive pit where 150,000 carcasses - some of them from Blackpool's county of Lancashire - have been buried.

Mr Waddell said: "It is bad enough having to live next to a massive burial site, but now we are discriminated against because of it.

"I just wish the zoo had publicised what they were doing more widely, so that we would never have built up the kids' hopes."

Tony Williams, of Blackpool Zoo, said there was concern that people living within six miles of infected areas, or close to foot-and-mouth burial sites, were at risk of spreading the disease.

He said: "This is not a witch-hunt, but we have to be very responsible about the threat to our animals, and we are following expert advice."