Three daycare workers in Delaware are accused of ordering toddlers to fight each other at the centre so they could watch.

Dover police said a cellphone video showed the female employees encouraging the three-year-old children to punch each other.

In the video, police said a child is heard crying and yells, "He's pinching me," before a daycare worker says, "No pinching. Only punching."

"Clearly one of the children is crying and does not want to continue on and he is pushed back into the fray by one of the adults," Capt. Tim Stump told CBS Philly of the footage taken in March.

Police did not release the video.

The employees from the Hands of Our Future Daycare have been arrested and the business licence of the daycare has been suspended.

Tiana Harris, 19, Estefania Myers, 21, and Lisa Parker, 47, are charged with assault, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child.