The small community of Torphins in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was in mourning on Monday for a 10-year-old boy killed on Saturday evening by a giant snowball he was making.
Peter Strang was engulfed by the snowball, thought to weigh about a quarter of a tonne, as he played with a friend on a snowy slope near his Deeside home. It is thought that they were rolling big snowballs down a farm field.
Charlie Watt, 63, a neighbor, said desperate efforts were made to try to break up the snowball and free Peter after his friend had screamed for help.
The Grampian police said it was "a freak accident" and said Peter's family were devastated. A report will be sent to the procurator fiscal and a postmortem carried out.
The head teacher of the village school, Irene Reid, visited the Strang family on Sunday afternoon to offer her support.
"We will hope to provide whatever support we can to the parents and to the children of the school as we always do," she said.
"Peter was a lovely boy who will be remembered with great affection by pupils and staff alike. He had a great sense of humor and was a child who cared about other people a lot -- he was always thinking about people less fortunate than himself," Reid said.
A local minister, Norman Nicoll, said some people had been hit hard by the news, particularly children who knew Peter.
"It's bound to hit them hard, because Peter was a very popular boy. We just have to come together as a community and support the family and friends,," he said.
A neighboring farmer said everyone in the area is in shock.
Another local resident described Peter as a "lovely little boy who was full of energy."
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said the incident was extremely unusual, and it was hard to see how it could have been prevented.
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