As Cumbria floundered in the face of a new villain, a hero emerged from the darkness.

It began as a joke: teenage clowns jumping out to scare other youths in the dead of night.

But it rapidly spiralled out of control, taking on a chilling edge with reports of pregnant women left terrified, frightened children unable to sleep and thugs brandishing weapons.

Angry residents vowed to fight back against the menace of the creepy clowns, and it appeared only a matter of time before someone was seriously hurt.

And so, when Cumbria needed him, Batman arrived.

The caped crusader took to the streets of Whitehaven for a touch of poetic justice, before becoming the face of hope for petrified youngsters around the world.

In his one-and-only interview, the man behind Batman has revealed how his role quickly evolved – from one of calm reassurance to that of clown protector in the face of violent vigilantes.

“I’d heard about these clowns scaring youths,” he recalled, “and then it got a bit darker. There were reports of women with buggies being scared and children having nightmares.

“We thought it would be good if we went out to give them a taste of their own medicine.”

The crime-fighting superhero donned his mask and headed out to confront their local teenage clown.

“When the clown saw a 6ft bat coming towards him he was terrified,” continued our hero.

“We reassured him we weren’t going to do anything bad to him and we weren’t going to hurt him, but we asked him what he was doing with himself.

“He went home with his tail between his legs.”

A flippant post by Cumbria Superheroes on Facebook the next morning, reporting on teaching the clowns a lesson, captured the public imagination – bringing hope amidst the fear.

“That was the only time I have been out tackling clowns,” Batman admitted, “from there it was really about being a reassuring figure.

“I was on the phone constantly with parents who were asking if I could write a message to their daughter or son.

“That was then followed up with responses from children or parents, saying they couldn’t believe Batman had written to them. We even visited a few children who were suffering terrible nightmares.

“Most of all, we’ve just had thank yous – from all over the world.”

He continued: “The one that stuck with me was a boy, only about 13, who had been living in England for about three months. He was foreign and his English wasn’t great, but he was scared that there were people wanting to stab and kill children.

“We just wanted to reassure those children that the clowns are just jokers, and they don’t want to hurt people.”

As the story hit global news channels, Batman received fan mail from American youngsters proclaiming him their hero, with many desperate to be like him.

Entertainment website The Lad Bible put together a video about Batman and his Cumbrian antics, and posted it on their Facebook site. As of yesterday, it had been shared by 265,000 people – and viewed almost 18m times.

“It’s just bizarre,” he said. “We’ve had contact from China on Facebook, via an interpreter, asking to use our photos.

“In my world I’m a father, a husband – and Batman last. I go to work during the day and spend time with my family in the evening.

“I’m just a hero at the weekend and to be dropped in this is mad.”

While the majority of the world sees him as a superhero, like his DC Comics namesake there are some who viewed Batman in a different light.

He continued: “We had some very scary messages, and a lot of them were from ex-military men.

“We had messages saying ‘we need you in Leeds’ or wherever, because they were planning to go out with knives and hunt clowns.

“These were really scary comments, and we became clown protectors too. We were just advising people not to go out, telling them these were just youths.

“We sent message after message telling people not to be hurting children – and not to risk hurting themselves.

“That was my biggest fear: I kept imagining turning on the news and seeing that a child had been killed.”

Batman added: “They were just youths and teenagers who get ahold of these crazes and think it’s a bit of fun.

“Sadly, this time it took a sinister twist.”

While the media circus goes on around him, Batman prefers to keep a low profile, turning down requests for interviews on ITV’s This Morning and even to appear on Judge Rinder .

The creepy clown craze appears to finally be calming down.

And so Batman says he will now slip back into the shadows ... until Cumbria needs him again.