SHOCKING pictures show a couple with a young child playing on the frozen surface of a reservoir in Scotland.
The group were spotted by disbelieving visitors walking next to 60ft-deep Threipmuir Reservoir, near Edinburgh, on Saturday.
A young couple, accompanied by a child and a dog, walked out on to the frozen body of water.
They kept going for at least 500 metres, taking them close to the centre of the reservoir.
A mobile phone snap, taken by a walker some distance away, shows one of the adults apparently running at the head of the group.
Another adult seems to be walking behind.
Right at the back of the group, unobserved by the adults, a child is bending down to play in the snow covering the ice. A dog is also visible.
One walker, who asked not to be named, said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Going on to the ice, even at the edge, is idiotic. Everyone knows that. But this couple just walked out into the middle as if they were in a field in the summer.
“It was bitterly cold. Had one of them fallen through I think there would have been a high chance of a tragedy. It would have been a tough rescue for the fire brigade, too, putting their lives at risk.”
The witness added: “It was taking the kid with them that seemed to me to border on the criminal.
“Things are tough for people at the moment with lockdown. But behaving like this was just crazy.”
Threipmuir Reservoir was created in the 19th Century to help provide drinking water for Edinburgh, a few miles away.
Temperatures in the area on Saturday were as low as minus 7 C taking into account the wind chill factor.
The following day, signs were erected in the local area, part of the Pentlands Hills Regional Park, warning walkers to keep off the ice.
Elsewhere in Edinburgh and the Lothians, police made repeated pleas for people to stay off frozen bodies of water.
One couple were seen pushing a child in a buggy on one of the city’s frozen ponds.
