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The sight will send a chill down the spine of every ­responsible parent... a toddler tied up with rope in the back of a moving pick-up.

Shocked passers-by saw it pull up and park on the ­pavement in a busy seaside town.

The boy was left in the back while the driver went to collect coal on a beach and a witness called the ­police.

He returned only after they tracked him down in a nearby fish-and-chip shop, and asked them: “What’s the problem? He’s strapped in.”

The shocking image emerged after a witness, dismayed at the dangerous way the child was being transported, took a picture on her mobile phone.

She said: “I thought it was a doll at first. But then I saw the boy’s head move and he pointed at a bird in the sky.

“It is a completely idiotic way to transport a child. His seat was wobbling all over the place as the car pulled in.

“There were bags scattered all around him. Debris could have blown into the back and hit him.

“If the driver had slammed on the brakes he could have been crushed by bags of coal.

“But when police questioned the driver he just said, ‘What’s the problem? – he’s strapped in’ and pointed to the rope.

"No one could quite believe what they were seeing.”

The boy was tied to a child seat in the back of the old Ford pick-up truck in Ashington, ­Northumberland.

Worried passers-by tried to speak to a man sitting in the passenger seat while the driver was collecting coal but he refused to wind the window down.

He ­finally got out of the truck when two police officers arrived.

They made sure the child was removed from the back of the truck. The ­incident eight days ago is being investigated.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “The driver was spoken to by police at the scene and inquiries are ongoing.”

It is an offence to drive with a ­passenger under 14 who is not wearing an appropriate seat belt or child ­restraint, according to the Department of ­Transport.

Anyone caught breaking the law faces a fine of up to £500.