Child Burnt by Vandal's Chemicals

A two-year-old boy is facing surgery after receiving serious burns at a playground slide in the US that had been vandalised with harsh chemicals.

Peyton Duschl received second and third-degree burns, mostly to his legs, after using the primary school slide.

Vandals had poured industrial-strength drain cleaner over the ride, and opened bottles of the dangerous chemical were found at the scene, police said.

A hazardous materials team was called in to clean the site in Maryland state.

The boy will have surgery on Sunday and is expected to stay in hospital for several weeks, his mother Carol Duschl said.

With a high sulphuric acid content, the cleaner was so strong that the accident and emergency department at the first hospital the boy attended had to be evacuated, said Michael Robinson, from the Baltimore County Fire Department.

"I just don't understand what would draw somebody to do something like that," Ms Duschl told US television station WMAR-TV. "What kind of sick joke is that?"