Mountain bikers have discovered large shards of broken sheet glass buried upright on a trail commonly used be bikes in Nescliffe Hill, Shropshire.

>>> Trail sabotage strikes again in West Wales

This is not an isolated incidence of trail sabotage. Indeed it isn’t even the first time the local riders have seen glass being used in booby traps. According to a report in the Shropshire Star, the same bunch of riders have found glass “sprinkled across the ground” on trails. There was also an incident where a sizeable pitch fork was found buried in a trail.

Looking upon it kindly, it looks like the person(s) laying the traps are intent on merely puncturing tyres but one can just imagine the result of someone crashing on to grass-spiked ground or even just people/dogs/horses walking over it. Not good.

Mountain biker Laurence Williams reported the incident to the police and press. According to the Shropshire Star, Mr Williams was “riding along the path and only saw the glass at the last minute, causing him to throw his bike to the ground and fall in to the bracken.”

Mr Williams: “It’s not as if we were riding where we shouldn’t have been. It was just on the path, which anyone could use. They were very large pieces of glass which someone had deliberately buried in the ground. I was lucky that I saw it, but if it had been someone else it could have been a very different story.

“The path is well used, it could have been a dog or a horse who cut themselves on the glass and it would have made a huge wound.

“A while ago I found a hay fork buried prongs-up in the path. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to dig a deep hole and then bury it.

“I use the hill a lot and I know it is popular with mountain bikers as well as horse riders and walkers with or without dogs. I just can not understand why someone would do this. The hill is there for everyone’s enjoyment.

“All I can imagine is that someone, or a group of people do not want us to use the hill. But is seems a very horrible and cowardly way of dealing with it and it could cause someone to have a very serious accident.”