The father of a young child has hit out after they were met with a scene of drug use when trying to access bathroom facilities in Belfast City Centre.
On Monday afternoon, the man and his son, aged seven, were in town, when the young child needed to go to the bathroom. They went to the public toilets at Castle Place only to be taken back at what was inside.
Exposed needles and other drug paraphernalia were in the toilet block. Blood was also on the floor.
Read more: "It's hard to come back from that" - Warning as heroin dealing rises
Taking to Twitter to share his frustration, he said: "My child needed the toilet in town earlier, public toilets at Castle Place was closest. Sort it out Belfast City Council."
Belfast City Council responded to his Tweet and said: "Hi, we’re really sorry this was your experience and appreciate you making us aware. These toilets are cleaned regularly throughout the day but we understand how unpleasant this was, particularly with a young child. These toilets have now been cleaned and the materials safely removed."
A council spokesperson told Belfast Live: “We are sorry for this poor experience at our automated public toilets on Lombard Street. These toilets are cleaned regularly throughout the day but we understand how unpleasant this was, particularly with a young child.
"Discarded drug paraphernalia has now been removed, and the site has been cleaned and remains open to the public.
"Our frontline staff work in the city centre daily and will remove discarded drug paraphernalia as part of our cleansing operations. Any incidences of discarded material can be reported by emailing sharps@belfastcity.gov.uk where they are dealt with as soon as possible.
"Council works closely with partner agencies, their outreach teams and the PSNI to develop longer term solutions to address substances misuse and anti-social behaviour in our city centre."
On Monday, a police officer revealed that in the last seven years, South Belfast and the city centre have become hotspots for heroin dealing.
The security source, who did not wish to be named, told Belfast Live that once heroin was being dealt on a wide basis, it becomes very difficult to retrieve the situation.
The source said: "It's only in relatively recent time that you've seen Belfast city centre and South Belfast change where there's a demand for heroin.
"People have stepped into that market and have done so from various parts of the world basically - you've got Russian crime gangs, Eastern European crime gangs, Lithuanian and Albanian crime gangs.
"An awful lot of these crime gangs are actually based in Dublin, it's their primary city in Ireland."
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