by Hayley Robinson

More than 100 villagers helped carry out a search for a missing child.

People of all ages spent nearly two hours combing the Newington area in a desperate bid to find Colby Fouche, seven.

The youngster went missing from the family home at about 6pm on Tuesday.

Residents were alerted after the police helicopter, which was circling the area, used a large speaker asking them to check their gardens and sheds for the missing youngster.

Colby was found at around 8pm crouched in bushes in an alleyway which links Bull Lane with the top of Playstool Road.

Mum Kelly Barnes, 27, thanked the community for their help in reuniting her with her son.

The mum of three, of Orchard Drive, Newington, said: "I just want to say ‘thank you’ to everybody and the police who did an amazing job.

"It really is a fantastic community that pulls together in times of trouble.

"The area was covered with people, even the teenagers went out in their gangs looking for him.

"I was at home talking to the police when I heard over the radio he had been found. I was so pleased, I burst in to tears. I thought someone had taken him.

"They took me up to him. He was very cold and he started to cry when he saw me. I think he thought I was going to tell him off. I just put my arms around him.

"Apparently he’d got stuck in the bushes by his coat and a man called Steve freed him but it was a man called Gary that found him."

Among the search party were Liam Venables, 43, of Church Lane; Paul Brunker, 46, of Dennis Willcocks Close, and two of his neighbours – Angela Wood, and Claire Hadlow, 36.

Mrs Hadlow said: "I think we all felt we had to do something instead of sitting inside listening to the helicopter pleading with him to go home and that he wasn’t in trouble.

"I do feel very humbled that the whole village pulled together."