Parents in north Belfast have been left angry and "very afraid" after children as young as five watched in horror as a man collapsed in broad daylight beside a busy play park after apparently injecting heroin nearby.
Children playing at the park on North Queen Street ran to their parents in fear after watching the man stumble along the footpath beside the busy road in the direction of the park before collapsing on to the ground.
A passing police patrol saw the man and administered first aid until an ambulance arrived and took him to hospital.
The incident happened at around 7.30pm on Wednesday while the play park was busy with children.
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SDLP assembly member Nichola Mallon said she had been contacted by a number of parents whose young children had witnessed the incident and now feel "very afraid this is happening in broad daylight in this way.
"They have said the children are traumatised by seeing the state he was in," she said.
Residents living in the area last night told the Irish News that the drug problem in the area is getting worse.
Ann Lyttle, who has lived on McCleery Street facing the park for 34 years, said her life was now "a living hell" as a result of those openly taking drugs, including injecting heroin, in the area on a daily basis.
She said her husband John has to brush up around their house every day to clear away abandoned needles and other drug paraphernalia at the back of their house, and is afraid to let her grandchildren out to play football.
The grandmother-of-eight said she doesn't "go out at night" for fear of "losing your life".
"It's got bad this year," she said.
"It started with the drinking and accelerated. My husband goes out and looks around and lifts it up and puts it in the bin.
"It's a nightly problem and some days. I came through at two o'clock from Mass and there was four of them, two taking heroin and two snorting coke".
Mrs Lyttle said her she now has "no quality of life".
"No freedom to come and go from our home after all these years of working," she said.
"Two weeks ago there was someone lying outside my house when I opened the blinds. I phoned the police. They asked me to go out and see if he was alive and I said `No way, too many people getting stabbed'. He was just outside the front door.
"It's unbelievable. I'm attending a counsellor for my nerves.
"I reared my children here and now, there is no life."
SDLP assembly member Nichola Mallon said she had been contacted by parents whose children - aged five and seven - had witnessed the man collapsing on Wednesday.
She said when parents went and checked the area the man had came from, they found a bag of drugs, heroin needles and other drug-related items.
"We have a prolific drugs problem in our society and we aren't doing enough to educate and prevent," she said.
"The fact that we have a man who injected and then collapsed in broad daylight at a busy children's play park means we have hit a new threshold.
"I have been contacted by a number of parents whose children witnessed this incident and they are angry and they are very afraid this is happening in broad daylight in this way. They have said the children are traumatised by seeing the state he was in".
Ms Mallon said she had been in contact with the PSNI yesterday about the situation in north Belfast.
"I am asking the police to make concerted efforts to tackle drug dealing and taking but we also need other partners to be stepping up as well with elected representatives and residents," she said.
"What we do know today is that there is a five-year-old and a seven-year-old left scarred by this".
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