A six-year-old girl was left writhing in agony with badly crushed toes after a heavy coping stone toppled off a wall in a busy shopping area.

The accident left Stephanie Mastrangelo with three broken toes and has wrecked her family's plans to spend Christmas in Italy.

Now her furious parents, who were today hoping to take her home after almost a week in Bradford Royal Infirmary, are considering taking legal action against Bradford Council.

The Glenaire Primary School pupil's mother, Sarah, of Valley View, Baildon, said the accident happened while the youngster was playing with her four-year-old sister Fiona by a public seating area, which has a wall round it, in Wellcroft, near Shipley Library.

She said as her daughter put her hands on to the coping stone to look over the wall at Fiona it had fallen off, dropping several feet on to her toes.

Mrs Mastrangelo, 30, said: "Two of her toes were so bad the doctors thought at first she might lose them.

"She's had surgery to put pins into the toes to keep them straight and they'll have to be in for about six weeks.

"They've said she'll be okay and she's in good spirits so we're hoping she'll now be able to come home.

"We had been looking forward to spending the Christmas holidays in Italy with my husband Nino's grandmother but Stephanie won't be fit enough to travel now so we've had to cancel which we're all upset about.''

She added: "She wasn't even climbing on the wall but, even if she had been, the stone shouldn't have just fallen off like that.

"It must have been ready to go at any time and it could have fallen on to anyone such as an elderly person or a toddler.

"Falling on to her foot was bad enough, but if she'd been smaller or bending down it could have hit her head and she could have been killed.

"It makes you wonder how many other stones are in a similar condition in public areas like that.

"We've spoken to a solicitor and we are considering taking legal action.

"Our main concern is for the safety of others, so we want to bring this to people's attention and get the council to make sure shopping areas like this are safe for everyone who uses them.''

A council spokesman said: "We had no idea that the coping stone was loose until it was reported to us.

"Somebody was sent out immediately to inspect the wall and arrangements were made for the coping stone to be re-bedded and for the surrounding coping stones to be checked.

"A check is made of Shipley town centre once a month by a council inspector, and we do all we can to make sure this sort of thing does not happen.''