A fast food fan was not lovin' it when he got a salty surprise after ordering a milkshake from a North Cheam burger bar.

Ron Luffman called at the McDonald's drive-thru restaurant in London Road, North Cheam, to pick up meals for he and his wife to take to their son's house last Thursday.

The pair picked up their meals and were about to head to their see their son, who lives nearby, but heard he was not in so stayed in the restaurant's car park to start their meals.

It was there that Mr Luffman, of Netherne-on-the-Hill in Coulsdon, got a nasty surprise. He said: "I sucked hard on the straw in my milkshake because they're usually quite thick and - wallop! - I've got a about four teaspoons of salt in my mouth.

"I was violently sick because I'd swallowed that much salt. Where I sucked it up through the straw it went straight to the back of my throat and I couldn't help but swallow it. I was sick right there.

"I was fuming so I went into the restaurant and I opened up the cup to show them thinking it would just be a bit of salt on top of the milkshake or something but it wasn't - it was a whole cup full of salt.

"I was so angry I poured it out on the counter. The boy who served me was there and he just looked at me and said 'it wasn't me'."

Mr Luffman explained how the manager came to offer him a refund but he said he could see the kitchen workers looking and laughing at him.

He added: "One of them has done this deliberately. Why would salt be in a drink cup?

"I was very sick and then I haven't been feeling too clever for the whole weekend - but what if this had happened to a child? This could have killed a kid."

A spokesman for McDonald's said the incident has been investigated and claimed it was a mistake that arose from someone transferring salt into a cup, a practice the staff at the branch had routinely adopted but was not standard procedure.

The spokesman added: "The quality of our products and the well-being of our customers is our number one priority.

"We apologise to Mr Luffman for this genuine error and for any upset caused. The restaurant will be asked to review their procedures to ensure that this does not happen again."