Spiderman has joined Batman in the fight against the creepy clowns craze terrorising children in Cumbria.

The superhero met children at Morton Park, Carlisle, armed with water pistols in case they ran into any of the creepy clowns.

Although they didn't actually meet any of the scary clowns and the children who came out on Thursday evening, about 13 in total, ended up playing with Spiderman.

He is the second superhero to take to the Cumbrian streets after Batman, courtesy of Cumbria Superheroes, was spotted out and about in Whitehaven.

The creepy clown craze came over to the UK after sweeping through America. Dozens of incidents have been reported to police but the craze is starting to die down - eight incidents were reported on Thursday and Friday but no arrests were made.

These include two incidents in Carlisle, and three in Workington, Whitehaven and Egremont.

A Cumbria Police spokesman said: “We urge the small minority of people still taking part to stop.

"Dressing up as a clown and deliberately trying to scare and intimidate others is causing a lot of distress to people and we will not tolerate it - this ‘prank’ could lead to you being arrested for a public order offence, possession of an offensive weapon, or even an assault.”

In just one week Childline has been contacted 120 times by children scared by the sinister trend in which people dress up as terrifying clowns in order to scare passers-by.

Mum of four, Sophie Murray, 27, of Finn Avenue, Denton Holme, Carlisle, said she has been too scared to let her children play outside all week.

She said: "I don't know what they will see. They don't understand why I'm not letting them out. They think I'm just being mean."

Sophie, owner of Stardust Parties, persuaded her husband Scott, 28, to dress up as the superhero and reassure the children that they shouldn't be scared.

"They loved him," said Sophie, "He was giving high fives. The little girls asked him to sing so he sang the Spiderman theme tune."

Spiderman has also been sending personalised messages to children through Facebook, telling them not to be scared as he's there to look after them.