A GROUP of trick-or-treating youngsters were handed a lamb's heart by a woman in a bloodied butcher's apron brandishing a fake knife who chased them down the street.

The four children, aged between nine and 12, were knocking on neighbours' doors in Orpington last night when they called on a local woman.

The woman, who had set up a table in her house with offal and raw meat on it, answered and gave them the lamb's heart wrapped in a plastic bag.

The children's horrified mother, who does not want to be named, said she would not be letting her daughters go trick-or-treating again.

She said: "I can't believe anybody would do anything so sick. To give children raw meat as a treat is just disgusting.

"My eldest daughter and her friend are nearly 13 so I thought it would be fine to send our nine-year-old daughter and her friend out trick or treating with them.

"But now I feel so guilty for letting them go alone.

"They came back carrying this heart in a plastic bag. They said they'd been given it by a woman from a house round the corner dressed up as a butcher.

"She was wearing an apron covered in blood and had a mask covering her mouth and was waving a fake knife.

"She had a table out and on it were things like hearts and intestines and mince.

"She grabbed my daughter's friend's hands and gave her one of the hearts. I think at this point the children thought it was a fake heart.

"The woman gave them a plastic bag to put the heart in and then she chased them all down the street.

"They were so scared they screamed all the way and came straight home. They were so shaken up by it.

"When I saw the heart I couldn't believe it. It was a real lamb's heart. It wasn't fake at all.

"My daughter's friend had blood all over her hands. I made all of the girls go and scrub their hands.

"I was so angry they had been made to touch real meat. They could have got ill from it. It is such a sick thing to do.

"My husband was fuming. He went round to ask the woman what she thought she was doing.

"She said she was just getting into the spirit of Halloween. She said it was just a bit of fun!"

The mum said she initially put the heart in her freezer because she wasn't sure what to do with it, but her husband later threw it out for the foxes to eat.

She added: "I'm so angry. If my children were younger they could have been really seriously traumatised.

"My kids go out every year trick or treating but they won't be going again.

"It was a really frightening experience."

The woman and her husband posted a picture of the heart on the Facebook page Orpington Gossip but later asked for it to be removed because of the negative reaction from other users.

Bromley police said they had not received any complaints.