Two mothers have spoken of their shock after discovering metal pins hidden inside sweets collected by their young children while trick-or-treating.

"If he had of swallowed that, he would be sitting in hospital right now and it would've been a completely different story," Samantha Bingham said, after finding a metal needle inside a chocolate bar collected by her eight-year-old son.

Savannah McDaid said she was shocked to discover four "metal pins embedded" in sweets collected by her three-year-old son after they returned home from trick-or-treating together.

The incidents are being investigated by police, with parents being warned to inspect any remaining sweets collected over Halloween.

Samantha told BBC News NI that the discovery had left her deeply shaken.

"We check his Halloween sweets every year, we had never had any issues in previous years but we always check," she said.

"We had heard about using a magnet before so I checked them over and I was actually surprised when one of the sweets was caught by the magnet and I was gobsmacked when I found the needle inside."

Samantha said her son Kaiden was also left extremely frightened by what had happened after trick-or-treating in the County Down village of Rathfriland.

"Kaiden just went pure white. There were tears and everything and [he] actually threw out all of his other sweets because he was so scared afterwards."

She said she could not understand why anyone would want to put a child at risk in such a way.

"My heart actually sunk," the mother-of-two added.

Samantha has appealed to other parents to carefully check any remaining children's Halloween sweets, urging them to be vigilant and look out for anything unusual.

"Who or what is the reason for it?" she asked.

"It's just shocking that someone could potentially do something like that to an innocent child."

It was only when they returned home that Savannah's mother suggested checking Arló's sweets.

Savannah said her mother had previously seen videos online of people finding objects in Halloween sweets, although she admitted she had not given the possibility much thought before.

"We checked over the sweets with a fridge magnet and four of the sweets actually reacted to them and stuck to it," she told BBC News NI.

They decided to examine them after they responded to the magnet's pull.

"It was two chewy bars and two chocolate bars and then when I opened them there were little clothes pins, like metal pins embedded inside them."

She said she was shocked by what she found and worried about what could have happened if her son had eaten the sweets.

"He would never have thought twice about checking the sweets, because he is only three. He is just so innocent that way.

"It could've ended up injuring him."

Savannah said she had also heard about another mother in neighbouring Ballybofey who had discovered "metal pin-like objects" in her son's sweets as well.

"It's just scary that something like that could happen and I reported it to the Gardaí (Irish police), but we are not sure if they could ever find who done this, because it would just be so hard to trace."

She said the incident had left her feeling hyper-vigilant about any future sweets he receives but was incredibly thankful she had checked the sweets before her son had a chance to eat them.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has confirmed it is investigating a report received on Tuesday of a "chocolate bar contaminated with a needle" in Rathfriland.

In a statement, a PSNI spokesperson said: "Inspect all wrapped and unwrapped sweets collected during 'Trick or Treating' and look for any unusual tears, pinholes or broken seals.

"Anyone finding anything suspicious or signs of package tampering should avoid handling the item further and contact police immediately."

In a statement, An Garda Síochána (the Irish police service) said they received a report of an incident which occurred on 31 October in the Stranorlar area and Ballybofey area in relation to children's trick-or-treat sweets.

They said enquiries are ongoing.