Police have issued a drug warning following the death of a 14-year-old girl in the Wirral in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
A 14-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of supplying or offering to supply an unspecified controlled drug, Merseyside police said.
Paramedics were called to an address in Greasby at 1.45am on Wednesday following reports that a girl had collapsed. The teenager was pronounced dead at the scene.
A postmortem has been scheduled, but police say they believe the girl died after taking controlled drugs.
DI Paul Parry said: “This is a terribly tragic incident which has resulted in the death of a 14 year-old-girl.
“We want people to think carefully before they consider taking drugs - it is not only illegal to buy and sell drugs, but taking illegal substances can also be very dangerous and potentially fatal. People taking these drugs don’t know what’s in them, where they’ve come from or what effects they may have.
“We know that children sometimes use and share drugs, largely because they are afraid of taking them on their own, but they need to understand that by passing a class A drug on to another child, [it] amounts to supplying.
“Other children also take them through peer pressure and parents need to reassure their children that it is the right thing to say no and resist this pressure, as we wouldn’t want another family to go through what this young girl’s family are going through.”