A magazine containing pictures of children killing animals has been stripped from shop shelves across Britain - thanks to the actions of a Bradford mum.

High-street giant WH Smith banned the February edition of computer magazine PC Zone from its 500 stores after Elaine Booth alerted the firm.

Mrs Booth, of Broadstone Way, Holme Wood. had been horrified when she was shown the pictures by her 13-year-old son.

The computer-generated pictures, designed to look like photos, depict children smashing the skulls of monkeys with lump hammers, shooting birds with pistols and torturing apes with chainsaws.

The images - which take up a full page of the magazine - form part of an editorial cartoon headed Doctor Helmut Werstler's Cruelty Zoo, which, according to a spokesman for the magazine, is "designed to make fun of real-life graphic computer games ."

Today Mrs Booth, who has contacted the police about the magazine, said she was seeking legal advice in a bid to prosecute the publishers.

She said: "The pictures are sick. Whoever doesn't find this obscene must be warped."

Her son Carl got the February edition of the magazine by subscription.

A spokesman for WH Smith said: "We have examined this product and the decision has been taken to withdraw the edition from our stores."

Christine Cubitt, 40, from Eldwick, who set up her own boy's comic called Boy's First Magazine to get away from violent and sexual images, has also condemned the pictures as sick.

She said: "I find it unbelievable, but unfortunately sex and violence sell and that's the attitude of a lot of publishers."

Animal and child protection groups have also voiced their concerns.

Superintendent Dave Millard of the RSPCA said: "If this is a joke it's misplaced."

A spokesman for the NSPCC added: "We recommend that parents keep a close check on the material children see."

Editor of PC Zone Jeremy Wells said: "We have already had several complaints about the pictures and we are doing our best to sort things out.

"Unfortunately the cartoon got through the censors over Christmas - it won't happen again."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.