Almost four in five UK nurseries ban children and infants from playing with toy weapons over fears it will encourage violence, a survey has found.

Critics slammed the politically correct teachers for banning superhero role play and games like ‘cops and robbers’ and ‘baddies and goodies’, effectively making active and exciting play harder.

Some experts point out there is little evidence children who play with guns are more violent as adults, and target shooting as an adult has long been considered one of the safest sports in the world, enjoying an impeccable safety record and a heavy emphasis on personal responsibility for the safety of the self and others.

The poll found a massive 79 percent of schools questioned said toy weapons, including swords and plastic guns, were not allowed on their premises, while 21 percent said they were allowed.

One in 20 has also banned superhero costumes, the survey of 1,125 nursery owners, managers, and staff in February and March found.

The poll comes a month after pictures of Prince George playing with a toy gun, knife, and handcuffs prompted a politically correct backlash, with some feminists and leftists complaining online.

Carla Coward, a former nursery teacher in Kent and now a parent governor at a primary school in Devon, called it an “absolute absurdity”.

She told DayNurseries that: “It’s astonishing that staff can be so frightened of young children’s play. A general consensus among early years is that playing weapon and superhero play can encourage violence as children grow up.

“My answer to that is does this mean allowing young children to play with dolls is going to increase the rate of teenage pregnancy? Of course not!”

David Wright, the owner of Paint Pots Nurseries in Southampton, said that, in his view, “there is a tendency to project adult attitudes and our reactions to tragic events portrayed in the media regarding guns in general and violence enacted with them, onto the imaginative play of children which is separate from world events”.

He added: “There is nothing intrinsically evil about children engaging in imaginative superhero play, goodies and baddies and even gun and weapon play. I certainly did as a child and I did not grow up to be a violent adult. There is no proven causality.

“Indeed I would argue that repressive control borne out of paranoia can be detrimental to children’s development.”