A DEADLY hallucinogenic Amazonian plant has been discovered on a footpath where children play.

The datura stramonium plant, or devil’s weed as it is also known, was found by a woman in a pathway on Greenstead yesterday just a few steps from her front door.

Margaret Scobie, 56, said she was stunned to find the plant, which has been known to cause death, seizures and comas, by the side of the public footpath outside the home she shares with her daughter, Michelle, 36, and grand-daughter, Kirsten, ten.

Mrs Scobie said: “I think it must have been there a while, but I hadn’t noticed it until my daughter said it looked like the one we had seen on the TV a few days earlier.

“It is so dangerous and I have three grandchildren who come and visit. There are so many children who play out here, especially during the summer holidays. One of them could easily put it in their mouth or play with it and I heard it can be deadly.”

Daughter, Michelle, immediately called Colchester Council, but was unable to speak to anyone until the end of the day.

The family was then told there was no one to remove the plant, as everyone had gone home, and it would be removed first thing today.

The tropane alkaloids in the plant can cause powerful visual and audio hullucinations in those who eat it and leave them in a trance-like or delirious state which can last for several days.

The plant can also cause seizures and death.

IT has been found in other parts of East Anglia in recent days, including Witham and Ipswich.