Upminster scout Luke Dowdall welcomes Flame in Trafalgar Square

Luke Dowdall, of the 1st Corbets Tey Scout Group, along with Ellie Breen, a scout from Wallington, south London, welcomed six scouts from Cumbria.

They had carried the Flame - kindled on Scafell Pike on Wednesday - to London in a miner’s lamp.

Luke and Ellie represented the 45,000 scouts across the capital and are both members of groups run for young people with special needs.

Luke is a pupil at Corbets Tey School, in Harwood Hall Lane, Upminster, which caters for pupils with complex learning needs

The cauldron was lit by Claire Thomas, who was left paralysed from the chest down following a horse-riding accident in 2007.

She walked the London Marathon earlier this year in a pioneering robotic suit, raising �204,000 for Spinal Research.

Along with David Cameron, London Mayor Boris Johnson, and 2012 Games chairman Lord Coe, were also at the ceremony.

Speaking in Trafalgar Square, Mr Cameron said: “The Olympic Games made our country proud. I believe these Paralympic Games will make our country prouder still.

“Already this is shaping up to be the best, the biggest, the most incredible Paralympic Games ever.

“Over these next two weeks, we’re going to have more of those moments that will bring us together and make us proud.

“We are going to show the whole world that when it comes to putting on a show, there is no country like Britain and no city like London.”

Parts of the Flame toured London.

Three other Paralympic flames were struck by scouts on the summits of the highest peaks of the home nations early last week, including Snowdon in Wales, Ben Nevis in Scotland, and Northern Ireland’s Slieve Donard.

The flames rest at Paralympic celebrations in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, along with London, before heading to Stoke Mandeville, where they were united during a special ceremony on August 28, before a 24-hour relay to the opening of the Games today at the Olympic Stadium.