AN URGENT investigation has been launched after the shock discovery of part of a hypodermic needle floating in a swimming pool.

The grim discovery was made by a member of the public at Plas Madoc Leisure Centre, in Acrefair, on Sunday afternoon and they, along with North Wales Police and other agencies are working together to try and establish how it happened.

A spokesman for the centre said: "Fortunately the needle was covered in a secure case but this was none the less a shocking item to find floating in the pool.

"The Leisure Centre has been overwhelmed by the public support that we have received over the last four years and this has been a key feature to our success. We continue to have an open door policy and welcome all feedback, good or bad and would like to reassure customers that we are taking this extremely seriously. We have not experienced an incident of this nature since we opened the building in 2014.

"The pool has been thoroughly inspected today at all depths, including the filter systems, chlorination/disinfection levels meet all regulatory standards, are sufficient to neutralise any potential contamination, and we are confident that there is absolutely no risk to our customers.

"We can’t understand why anyone would want to leave this type of item in a swimming pool and our organisation cannot over state how strongly we view this incident.

Anyone with any information about the incident is encouraged anyone with information to contact North Wale Police on 0300 300 0101 making reference to the incident number W139893.

Splash Community Trust, who run Plas Madoc Leisure Centre, and Empower Be the Change have both been shortlisted for this year’s Social Business Wales Awards.

When Wrexham Council closed the centre in spring 2014 due to budget cuts, the community worked tirelessly to form the Splash Community Trust and reopened the facility within six months.