'Creepy killer clown' sightings have been reported in the US, UK and also Netherlands.

As the 'killer clown' craze sweeps across parts of the Western world, police have warned people against dressing up as clowns and scaring or harming people.

However, it seems a 'vigilante' has stepped up to help the police in nabbing these clowns in England's Cumbria county.

In what can only be called as Batman playing out in real life, a man is dressing up as Batman and vowing to chase down the creepy 'jokers'.

A photograph has been shared on Facebook of "Batman" seemingly chasing off a "killer clown". BBC Cumbria reported local company Cumbria Superheroes is behind the effort to rid the streets of clowns.

They have reassured that the costumed man is not a vigilante, but just trying to reassure local children who are scared of the "killer clowns". BBC Cumbria also shared a screenshot of an image, apparently from a local child.

It said: "Hi Batman, my name is xxx. I have been scared of this clown situation (school told us about it yesterday). I seen on my mammy fb [Facebook] that you caught the clown.

"This means I can go to school and not be scared, thank you for your efforts".

One police force in Britain had to deal with 14 clown-related incidents in 24 hours, and police forces across the country have warned that incidents are accelerating.

Earlier this week, British police made an arrest in the case of a person in a clown costume who deliberately frightened people on London streets.

Police said Tuesday they had arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of a public order offense stemming from an incident that started Saturday night in west London and ended early Sunday.

Scotland Yard says there have been a small number of suspicious clown incidents reported in London - apparently inspired by clown-related cases in the United States.

Police Commander Julian Bennett said Tuesday that three of the London incidents amounted to criminal offenses.

He says police expect such incidents to increase in the weeks before Halloween and that additional "reassurance patrols" will be added.

Police in other parts of Britain have reported similar cases.

The creepy clown phenomenon, which has been spooking the United States, also appears to have arrived in the Netherlands after sightings of two people dressed in masks and bearing weapons, Dutch police said.

One person was seen overnight on Monday armed with a knife and a hammer, dressed in a costume and a scary clown mask near a park in the southern town of Oss.

And another was seen on Tuesday, after being spotted earlier in the week by residents in Almere, close to Amsterdam, further north in the country.

"Dear killer clown from Oss, clearly you find it either pleasant or fun to give people the fright of their lives," police in Oss wrote Tuesday on their Facebook page.

"You probably don't know, but to play clown in this way is punishable," they warned, adding they were taking the matter very seriously.

Almere police added these "possible pranks seem to have become a trend in the Netherlands now."

Creepy clown sightings in more than a dozen US states in past weeks have caused a wave of hysteria, forcing police and schools to scramble to contain spreading jitters.

Even the White House weighed in, warning that local law enforcement authorities were taking it seriously in the run-up to Halloween.

British police forces have also been called to several incidents around the country involving pranksters dressed as clowns jumping out and trying to frighten people.

yousufk@khaleejtimes.com(Inputs from AFP)