My daughter and her friends are terrified, one of them -she's 11 - was followed from school by somebody dressed as a clown. She ran to the nearest shop and called the police in tears. The rest of their group don't want to go out at all. We have a small wooded area near our house where we walk the dog and my daughter can't bring herself to go that way, just in case.
On a slightly lighter note, on Sunday in
Halfords, a feral child put on a clown mask and scared another customer, who promptly gave him a shove. Cue an irate parent on the phone !!