PARENTS are being warned over fears children were offered sweets containing ecstasy.

East Sussex County Council warned schools that sweets containing the drug were being offered to schoolchildren on Thursday evening in the county.

A county council spokesman said: “We take any suggestion that the safety of children in East Sussex is under threat very seriously.

“On Thursday evening we received information that schoolchildren were being offered sweets which contained ecstasy.

“We have shared the information we received to ensure schools can discuss with pupils the dangers of accepting sweets from strangers, and warning the wider school community.”

But when questioned by The Argus the county council later clarified it issued the warning because a person using the drugs service said they had seen it happen, but that there was no evidence of it happening. 

The council spokesman said: "We take any suggestion that the safety of children in East Sussex is under threat very seriously. 

“On Thursday evening we received information from a senior member of a council team dealing with substance misuse that a client had reported schoolchildren were being offered sweets which contained ecstasy.

“While there is no evidence of any incidents, we shared the information we had received to ensure schools could discuss the dangers of accepting sweets from strangers with pupils, and warn the wider school community.

“Although there was no definitive evidence of any incidents, our view was that the risks of not informing schools of this potential risk were greater than not taking action.”

Sussex Police said they had no reports of the incident happening but echoed the warning. 

A spokesman said: "This matter was drawn to our attention by East Sussex County Council, but we have had no reports of any such incident and there is no evidence to suggest that it has taken place.

"However, we would echo the council's warning about the potential dangers of children engaging with strangers for any reason and ask that any suspicious behaviour around schools be reported to police."