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, which named the child as Peter Strang, quoted a local church minister who gave a similar account.

"It seems there was a giant snowball the boys had made themselves," the minister told the paper.

"Apparently it rolled and unfortunately Peter 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.

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