Tributes are being paid to schoolboy Kyle Rees in the close knit community where he lived.

Kyle lived on Nortoft Road with his mum Tanya Cooper and his brother and sister.

Neighbour Ryan Thorn, 18, an apprentice, said: “He was my Godbrother – his mum Tanya is my Godmother.

“He was a great lad, a bubbly character. He made everyone laugh or smile.

“I can’t believe it has happened. He didn’t have one bad bone in his body. Everyone loved him.

“ I know the rumours that he was hit by a ball.

“He was one of the people you would least expect this to happen to. He was a good lad who never seemed to get into trouble.”

Neighbour Terry Edwards said: “I hadn’t seen him for a while but he was a nice little lad, very well mannered.”

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “His mother Tanya is lovely and we are all very sorry for her loss.

“She is very much part of the community. It’s very sad.”

Neighbour Kelly Savage, 30, had lived next door for five years, and said: “He was lovely. He was always bringing back our cat Whiskers, or borrowing my son’s football.

“We have heard lots of different stories about what happened and we really don’t know.

“He was a nice, cheeky, tall, handsome boy, really. He was getting all grown up. He would have all his mates outside and they would play football in the park.”

Her daughter Micha Mawdsley, 13, an Avonbourne pupil, said Kyle had been a pupil at Malmesbury Park Primary School.

Kyle’s mum Tanya works in the catering department of BEET language school on Nortoft Road.

Clive Barrow, the managing director, said: “She is very well regarded as a mother figure by the students. All the staff are genuinely fond of her and shattered by what has happened.”

The department manager, who asked for her name not to be used, had been to Southampton Hospital with the family.

She said: “Kyle worked for me last year for about six weeks in July and August during the school holidays.

“He was very helpful, very bubbly. He had just been accepted on an engineering course at Bournemouth and Poole College.

“He was always coming in and out for his keys when his mum was working here. He was so well mannered and he loved his family – he loved his mum deeply.

“He was a good cook and did a lot of cooking with Tanya because Tanya is a brilliant cook, she baked all the cakes for the school, and Kyle was following after her really.

“He used to go to the youth club at St Andrew’s Church.”