A COMMUNITY is in mourning this week following the death of a well-loved youngster in a road accident.

Tommy Bailey, 11, was involved in an incident with two cars in South End Road, Hornchurch, last Sunday. He later died in hospital.

A boxer and captain of his football team, the Abbs Cross student was extremely popular.

The site of the accident quickly became covered with tributes and thousands of messages of sympathy were left on his Facebook page.

The driver of a 252 bus travelling along South End Road and a woman passer-by witnessed the accident and stopped to comfort Tommy before the emergency services arrived.

Resident Mark Cray said: “It was very sad.

“There were lots of people just standing by watching but there was a woman there who had obviously seen it and had just stopped and was lying on the ground next to the boy holding his hand.”

Tommy, who lived in the road, is thought to have been playing a game with two of his friends when he was in collision with the two cars.

Police and London Ambulance Service attended but Tommy was in cardiac arrest when they arrived.

He was taken to Queen’s Hospital in Rom Valley Way, Romford, where he was confirmed dead at 1.15pm.

Since Sunday the scene of the accident has been transformed into a makeshift memorial for Tommy with family and friends leaving flowers, cards and condolence messages.

Tommy’s page on social networking site Facebook has also been taken over as a tribute to him with messages to his family.

One of the messages read: “No words make sense in times of such grief.

“Thank you for lighting up our lives, Tom you will always be in our hearts.”

Tommy used to go to West Ham Boxing Club three times a week. He had won two medals. On Monday the club held a minute’s silence for Tommy.

Secretary of the club, Lianne Jameson, said: “We were all sure that he would have been very successful in the world of amateur boxing.”

The former Towers Junior School pupil was also a member of the Tigers Football Club in Hornchurch where he was the captain of the Under-12s team. He had started going to the club when he was just five.

As a tribute to Tommy, the club have cancelled all their matches this weekend and are also talking about creating a lasting memorial to him.

A spokesman for London Bus Company said; “I can confirm that it was one of our drivers who witnessed this tragic incident and subsequently comforted Tommy at the scene.”