A local man has spoken of his horror after he and some friends unearthed a crude trap hidden in a local footpath reports CHRISTOPHER GAGE.

Christopher Williams, in his forties, was out mountain-biking with three friends when he discovered, just in time, a makeshift trap camouflaged amongst the foliage.

The makeshift device, a four-foot chunk of wood, had over 100 nails punched through it, and was clearly designed to cause serious injury to anyone unlucky enough to tread or cycle on it.

Mr Williams explained that he and some friends were cycling along their usual route in woodland near the Keeper’s Road on Monday night, when he suddenly stopped. He then couldn’t believe his eyes as he realised what was hiding just below his feet.

Someone had set a length of thick wood punched with over 100 nails, right along the trodden path, in wait for someone to tread on the crude contraption.

"Luckily, I was taking the lead and noticed it before we all rode over it," said Mr Williams.

"I said to the boys, ’Woah.’ Look at that!’ He then pulled the fearsome trap from the ground. "I couldn’t believe it, to be honest with you," he said. "I mean, what kind of person does something like that? A sick mind."

Mr Williams told the Chronicle it could have been much worse. "What if a child, or a dog, had walked across that?"

"To think someone would go to such an effort to do something like that," he said.

"It is unbelievable," he continued, "none of us could believe it.

"Imagine the injuries to a child or a dog. And miles away from help, too," he added.

The gruesome device, jagged with thick nails, would have easily shredded flesh. Mr Williams later told this newspaper he had disposed of the trap, to keep it from harming anyone.

Set amongst growth on the path, the device was positioned close to the road.

The photographs, which Mr Williams shared on social media to warn others, show the hideous device partially buried amongst the growth.

"It does make you wonder who is about," he added.

The culprit hid the trap on a trail that leads from the Green Grass Tram Road and snakes up by the former Cordell Country Inn on the Keeper’s Road.