'Deadly' bracelet pulled from sale at Hamleys after lead poison scare

Children's jewellery containing potentially fatal levels of lead was sold at Hamleys, the toy store has confirmed.

The company pulled two toxic products, imported from China, from its shelves yesterday and launched an immediate inquiry, a spokeswoman said.

It acted after the alarm was raised by The Sunday Times, which tested a sample of children's jewellery sold in the store.

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"Immediate action was obviously taken to remove these dangerous products from our shops as soon as we became aware of the problem," the spokeswoman said.

"We would never ever knowingly sell toxic jewellery to customers and take the health and safety of our customers extremely seriously.

"We are urgently reviewing our quality assurance process."

A £4.99 bracelet with heart shapes sold in the London shop contained more than 93 per cent lead - enough to cause brain damage and in rare cases kill a child who chewed it.

The recommended international safety limit for the chemical is 0.06 per cent.

Hamleys could not confirm if it would be testing the lead content of all its products sourced from China.

Safety fears over poisonous children's trinkets were raised just last week when toy giant Mattel recalled nearly two million Chinese-made toys in the UK because of fears over lead-laced paint.

Lead levels are strictly controlled in toys in the UK, at 0.1 per cent, but a legal loophole means there are no regulations stipulating the content of children's jewellery.

Tests by the newspaper also revealed high levels of lead in two children's products sold by Monsoon Accessorize as well as market stalls in London's Camden, Piccadilly and Oxford Street and Birmingham's St Martin's market.

It reported Monsoon Accessorize as saying it conducted regular safety checks on its jewellery and had received no complaints from customers.