LANCASHIRE emergency services have joined forces with local quarry operators in a vital child safety campaign.

The Quarry Products Association's Play Safe...Stay Safe initiative will warn children of the dangers that face them if they trespass into quarries to swim or play.

Lancashire is a major target for the campaign because of its importance as a major quarrying area, with around a dozen working quarries in the county.

And for the first time, police, fire and ambulance services are all supporting the association in warning children, parents and schoolteachers that quarries can be lethal to youngsters and other trespassers.

Lancashire's Assistant Chief Constable John Vine, on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "Nothing is worse for police officers than to be confronted with the loss of a young life, particularly when that could so easily have been prevented.

"Anything which helps to prevent such tragedies is to commended, which is why the association strongly supports the Quarry Product Association's campaign."

Quarry Products Association spokesman Elizabeth Clements added: "It is a very serious problem and we want to appeal to parents, teachers and everyone else who influences children to help us deliver the message that quarries are places for work and not for play."