Schoolboy crushed to death by giant snowball

Aberdeen - a 10-year-old boy has died in Scotland after being crushed by a giant snowball rolling down a hill, police and reports said on Monday.

The boy died on Saturday in Torphins, Aberdeenshire, in northern Scotland, the local Grampian Police force said.

In what appeared to be "a tragic accident", the schoolboy was playing with friends when a "giant snowball" they had been making rolled down a hill and engulfed him, a police spokesman said.

Scotland's Daily Record newspaper, quoted a local church minister who gave a similar account:

It seems there was a giant snowball the boys had made themselves, apparently it rolled and unfortunately the 10 year-old boy was caught under it. The boys had just gone out there to play and then something like this happens. It's very difficult to find words to explain it all.

Britain is currently enduring a late-winter freeze, with many areas shivering under the coldest nights of the season so far over the weekend.

Copyright AFP & WeatherOnline 2005