A MOTHER has raised concerns after finding a knife holstered to a bike in a street where her children were playing.

Pictures show the six-inch blade which had been attached to the underside of the BMX's handlebars.

A resident is worried about the knife being left so close to where her children were playing and also why someone is riding a bike around the area armed with a knife.

The knife was found in Back Bentley Street, off Radcliffe Road in Darcy Lever on Sunday, September 24.

The mother of two young children, who has asked not to be named, was walking from her house in Bentley Street when she spotted the bike.

She said: "There are always bikes left down there. People just seem to leave them there. I just went to the shop and I thought 'there is something not right with this bike' so I went back and had a look."

On closer inspection, she saw the knife, and decided to take it in to her house away from the children.

She said: "I thought oh my god, 'what is going on?' The children had me worried.

"A lot of children aged six or seven years old were playing nearby. Some of them might think to pick it up.

"A child playing there might have thought it was fake. It was a really scary situation."

The bike had been left in the street the night before and had gone again that evening.

After finding the knife, the mother tried to contact police on 101 and struggled to get through due to a high number of calls

She knew that police were currently in nearby Leverhulme Park due to a body being found so left the knife at home and went to see if there was an officer there she could speak to.

When there an officer helped her and gave her a crime number so that it was officially reported that she had the knife.

The woman went back home and soon received a phone call from a police officer who had arranged for someone to meet her at Bolton Police Station to hand over the knife.

She said: "It is the fact that someone is carrying that around. I was very shocked, my seven-year-old was playing out, my nine-year-old was playing out.

"My only thought was 'I don't want that on the street'. I didn't think of the consequences. I didn't think, I just took it.

"I thought I'm not having my children playing around that. The person that took it might come back.

"How easy would it have been for a child to see it and pick it up. It is quite scary."

The mother added that the area is usually quite a safe one to live in and they don't have any trouble.

A police spokesman that the knife had been handed in and submitted for evidence.