MINISTERS at St Michael’s church in Middlewich have issued a plea to residents to boycott violent Halloween toys which they claim represent real murder weapons used by Islamic State Militants.

In an open letter, the ministry team at St Michael and All Angels Church singled out Quality Save in Northwich as one store selling such items as plastic meat cleavers which they say is ‘disrespectful to the memory of Alan Henning.

The letter reads: “Quality Save in Northwich are selling small swords and meat cleavers which depict dripping blood.

“In the current climate, and with the devastating loss of Alan Henning, is this an appropriate toy for our children to be playing with?

“At the very least, it’s disrespectful to the memory of Mr Henning, who has paid the ultimate price for his willingness and desire to help others.

“The sale of these items glamorises violence, encourages aggression and is a very poor example to set to our young people.

“Meat cleavers and swords are real murder weapons, as the recent ISIS videos demonstrate too well.

“We find it in extremely bad taste that they are made into toys.

“If anyone feels the same as we do, please go into these shops, speak to the manager and together, we can get these items removed from sale.”

The St Michael’s ministers approached the Quality Save store in Northwich about the issue and the store manager, Tony Garcia, says he has made the Quality Save head office aware of the complaint.

Tony Garcia, store manager at Northwich Quality Save, said: “I can appreciate the concerns and when the woman from the church got in touch we fed that back to head office.

“It does actually come up on the till as a test purchase though so you have to ask the person’s age when they are buying it.”

Northwich Quality Save have now removed the plastic meat cleavers from display.

Read the full letter written by St Michael’s ministry team in next week's Northwich, Winsford and Middlewich Guardian.