A KILLER trap has been found in otter runs alongside the River Torridge.

The Victorian gin trap works like a giant spring-loaded rat trap.

An otter stepping on its flat metal base plate, would trigger the release of a spiked bar that would have smashed through the animal's spine.

The trap was found by a shocked canoeist on the river bank near Landcross and handed to Diana Lewis of North Devon Animal Hospital.

She said: "It is a horrible thing, and only someone cruel would have put it where otters go to and from the river."

The placing of the trap is seen as an isolated incident, say the Environment Agency, Bideford Police and scientists researching the resurgence of otters in Devon and Cornwall.

Dr Elizabeth Chadwick of the Cardiff University Otter Project said she rarely heard of otters being deliberately killed and hadn't recorded a killing in the south west.

An Environment Agency spokesman said it was illegal to trap, shoot or otherwise kill otters.

Mike Dunning said: "This is an isolated incident and an otter could have been killed, which is illegal and would have resulted in a prosecution if the person who placed the trap had been arrested."

Bideford Police said the trap was destroyed the day it was handed in.