Children were 'sliding though faeces' for up to half an hour after a boy defecated in a McDonald's playground in New Zealand, customers have claimed.

Julian Rivers-Smith said the child defecated at the top of the slide on Saturday and several others got covered in it while their parents rushed out to tend to them.

'There was a mother clearly distressed screaming hysterically for [staff] to make it stop,' he wrote in a complaint on the restaurant's Facebook page.

Children were 'sliding though faeces' for up to half an hour after a boy defecated in a McDonald's playground in New Zealand, customers have claimed

He claimed instead of cleaning it up, staff took photos of the scene and one shared a video on Snapchat, and it was up to 30 minutes before it was cleaned up.

Mr Rivers-Smith said staff at the Frankton, Hamilton, branch hosed the children down 'like cattle' when they finally attended to the mess.

'This all could have been avoided if the staff had been more responsive and dealt to the situation instead of just trying to sell more cheeseburgers,' he said.

A diner claimed instead of cleaning it up, staff took photos of the scene and one shared a video on Snapchat, and it was up to 30 minutes before it was cleaned up

Another customer, Sarah Lux, claimed in another Facebook post on Saturday that her son was one of the children who had slid through the faeces.

'A child had pooped on the slide in the playground, myself and multiple others informed different staff members that it needed to be cleaned up and finally after 20 minutes we finally found a lady that cared enough to clean it up,' she wrote.

'My son had been through it and has got it on his pants and another kid had even tasted it as he thought it was chocolate.'

McDonald's admitted the incident took place, but said the complaint (pictured) was 'embellished' and contained many untrue claims by someone who was not present

Another customer claimed in another Facebook post on Saturday that her son was one of the children who had slid through the faeces

McDonald's admitted the incident took place and that staff should have responded quicker, saying it had 'no reason to doubt' Ms Lux's version of events.

However, it said Mr Rivers-Smith's complaint was 'embellished' and that he was not even there to witness it.

A spokesman said CCTV footage showed the first complaint was made at 2.50pm and another at 2.56pm and staff began cleaning it at 3pm.

He denied staff took any photos or video, and said kids were at no point hosed down.