A YOUNG girl has been impaled through the foot by a wooden barbecue skewer while playing on the beach.

Lola Thomasson, aged seven, from Christchurch was visiting the Avon Beach with her mother Karen Krige, on a rare day off from lockdown and home schooling.

It was eventually removed in hospital after being stuck in the youngster’s foot for four hours.

Karen said: “It was a nightmare day. We wanted to go down to see the stone display, do some crabbing and see our friends in their beach hut. We hadn’t been there for so long.

“Lola and her friend Bethany were running chasing a ball when the next thing we knew Lola was on the ground screaming.”

Karen was shocked to see Lola’s left foot had been pierced with a wooden barbecue skewer.

There were also a handful of skewers left in the same area, partially buried in the sand.

Karen said: “I couldn’t believe what people had left on the beach.

“We phoned the ambulance and they said to keep Lola still, but when we phoned again they suggested moving her so we carried her across the beach. The ambulance man never came in the end.

“I understand that in their eyes it’s not an emergency, but it was for us.”

Once Lola arrived at hospital after being driven by her father, emergency medics removed the skewer over four hours after it had first pierced the sole of her foot. Lola is now reluctant to visit the beach again, says her mum. Karen said: “It’s so frustrating as residents and beach hut owners are seeing what’s happening to our beaches.

"I hope there are no more incidents like this. It was a traumatic experience for Lola and now she doesn’t want to go to the beach again.”