The killer crown craze has returned to terrorise Britain as pranksters in circus masks lurk on our streets in the run up to Halloween.
The bizarre and terrifying trend has once again reared its ugly head, with recent sightings in Kent, Essex and Cornwall.
Last year the epidemic swept across the country, with reports of children beckoned into mysterious cars, people chased down the roads with knives and one pregnant woman so scared she was brought into early labour.
The killer crown craze has returned to terrorise Britain as pranksters in circus masks lurk on our streets in the run up to Halloween
The trend, which came over from America, burst onto British shores in October last year and lasted through to Halloween.
Now it is has returned with reports of two pranksters dressed in freakish clown costumes, similar to the character Pennywise in Stephen King’s It, spotted lurking outside Thamesview School in Gravesend, Kent.
Concerned parents then flooded teachers with phonecalls after hearing that clowns were hiding in bushes near other schools in the area.
There were also reports of masked men leaping out at shoppers and moving cars in Canterbury, Kent.
While residents on the south coast, in Liskeard, Cornwall, took to Twitter to share sightings of a masked maniac chasing people.
On man told the Daily Star: ‘I saw the scary man in town looking into people’s car windows.’
The bizarre and terrifying craze has once again reared its ugly head, with recent sightings in Kent, Chelmsford and Cornwall
Another added: ‘I saw him walking around town, he really scared my six-year-old.’
Police were called in Chelmsford, in September this year, after a man dressed in a killer clown outfit was seen walking through the city at night.
Reports on social media claimed he was jumping out of bushes and scaring people.
The killer clowns craze terrified the nation last year, with one police force recording 14 sightings in just 24 hours.
Pranksters were inspired by similar events across America, where such tricks happen at about the same time every year and have done for decades.
In Liverpool, extra patrols were put on as children went to school after Instagram accounts posted pictures of the school gates with ominous messages indicating clowns were ‘waiting for them’.
One of the most severe cases was reported in County Durham, where a knife-wielding man in a clown mask chased four children — aged 11 and 12 — as they were walking to school.
The killer clowns craze terrfied the nation last year, with one police force recording 14 sightings in just 24 hours
Other reports in Teesside, came when a young girl said she saw a man dressed as a clown carrying a blade as he walked through the village of Brotton.
Another clown jumped out of a bush brandishing a weapon, scaring a cyclist in Eastbourne, Sussex.
The red haired jester then just stood there and made no attempt to chase or grab the biker in Eastbourne, last October..
Fear of clowns is so pervasive and instinctive it has its own name — coulrophobia. According to Dr Steven Schlozman, a child psychiatrist and academic at Harvard, humans are built to recognise patterns from an early age.
A clown’s exaggerated features ‘set off a primal warning bell’ from within our brain that something is not right, he said.
HOW THE UK WAS TERRORISED BY CREEPY CLOWNS IN 2016
Epidemic? Our map shows how many places across the country have had reported sightings of the clowns
Bracknell: Leah Woodcock saw a clown peeping through a restaurant window as she ate with friends on Sunday night.
Crawley, West Sussex: Residents report seeing people with clown masks ‘lying in wait’ on street corners as they prepare to chase adults and children down the streets.
Manchester: On Sunday night, two separate incidents of two clowns jumping out at people as they stopped their cars outside a shopping centre were reported, with one woman claiming one jumped on her car bonnet.
County Durham: A clown jumped out at four young children, aged 11 and 12, on their way to school.
Manchester: Children were left ‘petrified’ by a person driving through the streets wearing a clown mask.
Gloucester: Six reports were made of pranksters dressed as clowns wielding knives, following people or acting suspiciously.
Gtr Manchester: A clown was spotted ambling down a street wearing a hockey mask and covered in ‘blood’ in the middle of the day in Ashton-under-Lyne
Plymouth: A man posted a video online showing him being confronted at night in the town by a clown armed with a hammer. There have been other report of people dressed as clowns, including one near a school bus.
Newcastle: There have been several reports of a knife-wielding clown in a Teeside village where a mother and daughter were reportedly chased by one.
Liverpool: A clowns social media account sharing images of schools in Liverpool on Friday, with scared youngsters also spotting them. Police presence increased outside several schools on Monday in response to apparent threats made by the clowns the week before.
Dundee: Police were called to a park after eight youngsters in clown masks were spotted frightening motorists in the area.
Sheffield: Workers in Sheffield spotted a clown on a mobility scooter.
Leeds: Tom Jackson, 18, a first year student at Leeds Beckett University said he was ‘very scared’ when he saw a man dressed as a clown near an underpass in Leeds at 4.30am on Friday.
Essex: Two young girls on their way to school were approached by a pair of male clowns in a black van who invited the girls to a birthday party. The girls fled in terror.
Caernarfon, North Wales: A passenger in a passing car spotted a clown near a kids playground at night.
Walsall: A driver posted footage of a clown trying to get into her car, also claiming he had followed her into a pub and stared at her for five minutes before leaving.
Norfolk, Norwich: A 30-year-old man dressed up as a clown has been arrested after jumping out on a lone woman in a park and chasing her. The man was arrested in connection with Public Order offences after screaming at the female victim on Sunday. He was given a caution.
Chorley, Lancashire: A clown lurked outside a home for 15 minutes before a grandmother shouted for it to ‘p*** off’.
Leicester: A woman claims she gave birth at eight months after a teenage clown jumped out and scared her, causing her to go into early labour. Mother and baby are said to be doing well.
Watford, Hertfordshire: At 3.30pm on Sunday October 9 two children riding their bears up to Harebreaks were beeped at by a car which had a clown holding a butter knife in who shouted ‘I’m a clown with a knife’
Sandy, Bedfordshire: According to Clown Spotted UK on Facebook a picture was shared on Monday, October 10, of two clowns in nearby woods, one allegedly with a chainsaw.
Carmarthen, Wales: The social media page also showed one in the town centre of Carmarthen.