SAFETY chiefs are warning youngsters that building sites are potentially lethal playgrounds.

Thousands of Sunderland junior schoolchildren will take part in the fifth annual Zone Rangers event between now and the end of the month.

It aims to get children to be more safety conscious, particularly with the summer holidays coming up.

The Health and Safety Executive is using the event to warn children about the risk of accidents on building sites.

Bill McKay, principal construction inspector for the HSE in the North-East, said: "Building sites may appear to a child to be wonderful adventure playgrounds. They are not, and should be avoided.

"As accidents go, we have, over the last few years, been relatively fortunate in the North-East but there is always room for improvement and the HSE continues its support of the Zone Rangers initiative.

"The initiative is an excellent way of raising safety awareness and so helping to reduce the risk of accidents to children both at home and play.

"We will show that although a building site appears to be a wonderful playground, danger lurks ready to strike the adventurous or curious child who ventures there.

"We will alert children and their teachers about the dangers from machinery, chemicals, fire, scaffolding, piles of sand excavations, drains, manholes and so on."

During the event, Railtrack is warning children to stay off railway lines and the Tyne and Wear Fire Brigade is showing how chip pan fires should be tackled.