A SHOPPER was left horrified when during her weekly shop she found a knife inside the packaging of a child's toy.

Haleemah Patel, 29, said she was browsing the aisles at her local Aldi store on Montague Street, Blackburn, when she came across a doll that she thought would make a "lovely gift" for her two-year-old daughter.

When she picked up the box, which had been damaged on one side, she noticed a large bladed article and immediately passed it to a member of staff.

She said: "I was doing my weekly shop and browsing through the aisles when I came across a toy doll that would make a lovely gift for my daughter.

"I picked the toy up and the outer packaging was damaged on one side, and when I looked at the toy my attention fell on a metal object.

"I was shocked and amazed to see a knife inside. I had to look twice to make sure it was a genuine knife. I could not make sense of why a knife would be part of a toy.

"I went to inform an Aldi worker and I told them to take this to the manager straight away. He went and I didn't see him again.

"It saddens me to think that someone has put that knife inside the box deliberately, it could have gone home to a small child.

“Aldi ought to look into how it got inside. I would like to raise attention to parents out there to be vigilant when purchasing toys and check the contents inside as this could have been fatal if my daughter had picked the toy up."

An Aldi spokesperson said: "When Ms Patel noticed this Tiny Tears product had been tampered with, we immediately took it off sale.

"We can confirm that it is an isolated case where the packaging appears to have been deliberately tampered with.

"Our supplier has confirmed that the product passes through highly sensitive metal detectors before leaving their factory and the packaging could not have been compromised during the manufacturing process."

Aldi stressed that the product was a Tiny Tears branded doll and the supplier has confirmed that this has never happened before in its history, over 50 years.

The supplier also has metal detectors installed at its factories and all products are scanned before leaving the factory, in addition to extensive quality control checks.

It has also been advised that the ties around the doll and all other components of the toy are machine generated and cannot be replaced.

Based on this, Aldi say, the product had 'clearly' been tampered with.