A toddler escaped with cuts to his hand after tripping onto a pile of broken glass from a vandalised phone box.

Brave - little Thomas Summers shows his injured hand. Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL 9PDTV2

Little Thomas Summers, two, was left shaken and upset after falling onto the tiny splinters of glass next to the booth in Archer Avenue, Southend.

His mum Lisa Pittaway, 26, said: "He was really good and brave and he didn't cry but he was very shaken by it.

"But there was a very sharp piece of glass next to where he fell and if he had fallen sideways it might have gone right into his head or cut him across his face."

Lisa, of Archer Avenue, said the phone box had been vandalised over the weekend and there was broken glass all over the ground when she went out with Thomas on Sunday.

The mum-of-two, who also has an eight-month-old daughter, Lauren, contacted BT once she came home from Southend Hospital and the area was cleared up on Monday.

A spokesman for BT Pay Phones said: "We try to get glass from vandalised phone boxes cleared up as soon as we are notified.

"We use toughened glass which is designed to break into non-sharp pieces which should be quite safe. The blame lies with the vandals."

Published Wednesday, May 1, 2002