Bollards that have been made to look like school children in a sleepy English town have been described as 'the stuff of nightmares' by creeped out locals.
The Daily Mail reports they were installed along the roadside in the village of Stoney Stanton back in 2020, with the expressed aim of reminding drivers to take care on the roads.
Despite being over two years old at this point, the bollards went viral last week, after a man posted a video of the doll-like figures to social media.
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Andrew Cooper, who lives in nearby Leicester, came across the bollards last week - and soon took to Twitter to share a video of what discovered as he drove through the quiet town.
"Because no one ever believes me when I tell them that one of our neighbouring villages has made their bollards look like Midwich Cuckoo style children, I have recorded the ghastly proof on video," he wrote.
Paid for by the Stoney Stanton Parish Council and the local school, it's safe to say they haven't gone down well with everyone.
Some Twitter users were astounded by just how creepy and unsettling the bollards look, in spite of their obvious advantages.
One person called the plastic infants 'the stuff of nightmares', while another user simply commented: "Crickey. That is very disturbing."
Moreover, some people even suggested that they will have the opposite effect than is intended, due to how distracting they are.
"I think the painted bollards would be more of a distraction rather than a warning of children around which could be more dangerous?" a third user posited.
These aren't the only bollards of their kind in the UK, however.
While the Stoney Stanton models were the brainchild of local Parish clerk Roz Ward, similar versions do also exist in Windsor.
For those who campaigned to introduce the road furniture, the goal is simply to make drivers think about the speeds they are going at, and the possible consequences they might face if they veer off the road.
Cooper admitted that he didn't notice if there is any school nearby, explaining: "Whenever I go through, I'm too mesmerised by the creepy bollards to notice anything else."
More ominously, the Midlander claims that the bollards look 'worse at night', where the horror film comparison would surely be even more apt.
His original video, which was tweeted out over the weekend, has since caught fire, going on to receive over 5.5k likes at the time of writing.
Topics: UK News, TV and Film, Social Media
Tom Fenton