Children seen playing on frozen pond prompts warning

A warning has been issued to parents, schools and children after pupils were spotted playing on a frozen pond in Nottinghamshire.

A group of children were spotted on Simpson's Pond in Newark by an off-duty firefighter on Monday, but ignored his pleas for them to move to safety.

Newark Fire Station manager Zack Goodspeed said: "We don't want people to stop having fun, but this isn't the type of fun that people should be having this time of year."

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service has since warned of the dangers of playing on ice on social media, pleading with parents and schools to share its message.

While there were no reports children came to any harm on the ice, Goodspeed said what might appear to be fun could "quickly turn into a disaster".

The Met Office has issued weather warnings across the East Midlands between Tuesday night and Friday for ice and snow, while the county saw its first snowfall of the year earlier this week.

Goodspeed said incidents of people on dangerous ice were "on the increase" due to the time of year.

One of the manager's team members was walking his dog on Monday when he saw children on the ice.

"He approached the children just to let them know that it wasn't the best idea what they were doing and maybe to come off the ice but they were quite unreceptive," Goodspeed said.

"From a fire service perspective, it's quite difficult for us to intervene. When we're really called upon, it's when things have gone wrong."

In a Facebook post, Ashfield Fire Station also said it had received reports of "children wearing school uniforms walking on to ice on local ponds".

The station urged parents and schools to warn young people of the dangers of playing on ice.

Goodspeed added the fire service had attended "many incidents like this", but the level of response to reports of people playing on ice depended on the circumstances, adding it was not always appropriate for crews to attend.

The fire service also received a report of a person spotted on a lake in Highfields Park in Nottingham this week.

"My fear is that this is going to increase for the remainder of the week," Goodspeed said.

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