The Bath and West Community NHS Trust says it has withdrawn the batch of a vaccine for diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

The action follows calls by 11 parents to an immunisation helpline.

The parents complained of a range of reactions to the vaccine.

One child is reported to have spent a whole night screaming after their leg swelled up.

All the children affected were under six months old and all had received vaccinations from the same batch.

Withdrawal

The trust stressed that it had only received reports of 11 children out of 430 given the batch being affected.

However, it took the precaution of withdrawing the batch and asking the manufacturer to conduct further tests.

"We are confident the vaccine is safe and the last thing we would want to do is put parents off immunisation," said Philip Pugh-Morgan, chief executive of the trust.

Dr David Salisbury, principal medical officer at the Department of Health has written to all public health officials warning them of the Bath scare.

But he did not recommend the withdrawal of the batch, which was distributed nationwide between 4 March and 26 April this year.

In his letter, he said: "This problem would appear to be predominantly in the Bath area."

The Department of Health said a sample of the batch had been sent for further testing and public health officials would be informed if there was any problem with it.