THE father of a five-year-old girl has demanded answers after his daughter found two large pieces of glass inside a cushion featuring characters from the popular Disney film, Frozen.

The shards of glass, each more than two inches long, were buried in the filling of the scatter cushion, featuring Queen Elsa and Princess Anna, eventually working their way to the surface and poking a hole in the fabric.

James Henry, from Darlington, who bought the £5.99 cushion at the Home Bargains store in the town as a Christmas present for his daughter said she could have been seriously injured by the glass.

The family has urged other parents who may have bought their children the cushion, which has been on sale at a number of shops and market stalls around the town, to check it carefully.

Home Bargains, which stocks the product but did not manufacture it, said it is investigating the incident.

Mr Henry said his daughter loved Frozen and had been delighted with the cushion, using it as a pillow each night since opening it on Christmas morning.

Two weeks on, the schoolgirl noticed that a hole had developed on one side of the cushion and asked her parents what was wrong with it.

Mr Henry spotted one piece of glass poking out of the hole and found another shard entangled in the filling of the cushion.

He believes there may be more inside but has been reluctant to dig further.

He said: “These weren’t little bits of glass, they were very sharp and pointed. God knows how many are in there.

“It’s lucky my daughter came to us when she saw there was something wrong rather than poking around in the hole herself, she could have really hurt herself.

“She has spent two weeks sleeping on it, jumping around on top of it on her bed, cuddling up with it. I hate to think what could have happened.

“I’ve contacted the Darlington store and the head office of Home Bargains because I want to know how this could have happened.”

Joe Morris, operations director at Home Bargains, said: "We have requested that the customer returns the product to us, so we can fully investigate the incident."

Trading standards officers at Darlington Borough Council have also confirmed that they are investigating the incident and working with Mr Henry and the store.