A CHILDREN’S Easter egg hunt descended into chaos and left injured kids in floods of tears when the field was stormed by crazed parents.

One four-year-old boy was left “bloody” and a girl of two was shoved into the mud as more than 1,000 people showed up at the free event.

Kids were trampled as adults stole buckets in a bid to grab as many of the 9,000 hidden eggs as possible at the third annual PEZ Easter egg hunt.

One horrified parent described the scene as “an angry mob of chaos” and said “not one toddler” was hunting for eggs among the mass of adults.

The event had been scheduled to start at 10.30am yesterday with the field divided into three sections for different age groups at the sweetmakers’ headquarters in Orange, Connecticut, US.

The oldest group was supposed to be for kids aged nine to 12. But adults quickly stormed the field, ignoring the start time, as the event descended into meltdown.

Parents took to the PEZ Facebook page to blast the company’s organisation.

Val McCormick said: “It was worse than being at Wal-Mart on Black Friday.

“My toddler that was standing with her brothers were shoved into the field and went with the flow. By that time it didn’t matter. I had to yell GO to my boys because it was like an angry mob of chaos.

“In the toddler field it was more of a greedy parent field. Not one toddler hunting for eggs. It was nuts. Way too many people and more than their staff could handle.”

The field had been divided into sections using ribbons, but one parent said they quickly became submerged in the mud.

Nicole Welch, who was at the event with her four-year-old son, said: “When it came time at like 10.30am, the parents just bum-rushed that area.

“When my son left he had a broken basket and he was hysterically crying.”

A grandparent wrote on Facebook: ‘My grandson ended up with a bloody nose from an ADULT in the 9-12 year old section knocking into him!!!!

“Where was PEZ personnel?? Where was the safety of our children in your thought process?? And to make matters worse, how about almost getting hit by a vehicle leaving your property, which had parked in your lot and was leaving, in very close proximity to the ‘egghunt’ field?”

A PEZ official confirmed the meltdown.

General manager Shawn Peterson said: “We started talking to people and said, ‘Hey this is supposed to start at certain time’. That lasted about a minute and everyone just rushed the field and took everything.”

The firm also released a statement lamenting the controversy.

It read: “Unfortunately people chose to enter the first field prior to anyone from Pez staff starting the activity.

“The crowd moved to the second field, waited for only a couple of minutes and proceeded to rush the field without being directed to do so and before the posted start time.”

Some parents slammed the firm for failing to organise the event properly.

One, Liz Soares, wrote: “Hey thanks for the waste of time and non existent organisation of your egg hunt. Specific direction 9-12 egg hunt 11am sharp. We drive 2 and a half hours to show up 30 early only to receive a ‘Sorry, no one listened and they started early’.”

But many more leapt to PEZ’s defence, instead blaming selfish parents for ruining the egg hunt.

Linda Bowermaster said: “Shame on the ADULTS that ruined this for everyone!! Does no one act responsibly anymore? For this reason I stopped my kids from doing all sorts of fun things because it’s the Adults that ruin it.”

Kym Vance added: “Thank you to PEZ for trying to do something nice for the children of the community. Shame on the parents who ruined it because they have no manners.”

And Kyle Cheung said: “You parents should be ashamed of yourselves ... Pez tried to do something fun for the community...how do grown up adults run onto the field with all the lil kids and shove and steal their eggs?? SHAMEFUL!!”