Parents hit out at police for 'putting their children's lives in danger' after they blasted 15 schoolgirls with CS gas spray near a busy road.

A complaint has been made against Avon and Somerset constabulary by one of the parents after the riot gas temporarily blinded her daughter outside the school in Bristol.

Musnilya Babatunji said the loss of vision made her 15-year-old daughter Jibuise stagger into a busy road following the incident outside Whitefield Fishponds Community School.

The older girl and her friend, Sasha Wood, 13, say they went to help a classmate who was fighting with another girl.

Police said the officer concerned was single-handedly dealing with a melee involving 15 people, and that gas was the best option.

Mrs Babatunji, who lodged the complaint, said: "These were schoolchildren. I think it's disgusting. They went about it the wrong way. It was too extreme to use the CS spray.

"It could have caused even more injury, because the children were rubbing their eyes and wandering into the main road."

Her daughter said: "I felt a bit dizzy and my eyes were burning. I couldn't open them."

A force spokesman said: "A police officer on patrol at this school witnessed a fight involving around 15 people in the middle of Fishponds Road earlier this year.

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