PARENTS have been warned of the rules for the town's junior parkrun after a child was seen being dragged around in the hot weather.

It was a scorcher during the Colchester run held at the Old Heath Recreation Ground on Sunday.

Event Director Karrianne Marking posted on the group's public Facebook page after hearing from a member of the team that a child was distressed.

She wanted to make clear certain behaviour will not be tolerated.

She said: "We take the safety and wellbeing of the juniors very seriously and will not tolerate this behaviour, we are proud to run a fun and free event week in week out and the children's fun and safety is of paramount importance to us.

"We pride ourselves on seeing happy smiling faces, so it's heartbreaking to see this happened."

In the post she said: "If your child decides to pull out at any point that is absolutely cool with us. The last thing we want as a team is for a child to be that distressed.

"Junior parkrun is fun and must remain that way.

"Please also remind your children to not chop the corners - we cannot ensure their safety if they are not following the route.

"We risk assessed the course, they need to stay on the path.

"It appears to be the same group of boys each week - we are able to identify them and if it continues we may have to remove them from the results, as they are not running 2km."