Two schoolgirls helped reunite a volunteer with her handbag after a thief stole it from a church.

Joan Davis, 72, was cleaning the Greenstead Evangelical Church, in Magnolia Drive, Colchester, when she left her handbag unattended.

A thief snatched the bag and fled dropping Miss Davies' mobile phone on the way.

Summer Crosby, ten, from Hazelmere Junior School and Ellie Tokley, 12, from Colchester Academy, found the bag and, after seeing a card for the church, they contacted a lady they knew attended it.

Read the full story in today's Gazette.