Shropshire's 12,500 Christmas gifts for poor children

More than 12,500 gift-filled shoeboxes have been donated by residents in Shropshire to ensure poverty-stricken youngsters across the world can enjoy a merry Christmas.

The shoeboxes have come from communities throughout the county, including Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Market Drayton, Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Telford and Whitchurch.

And the total comfortably beat last year's collection of 11,900, although there is no indication yet whether it is a record.

Teams of Operation Christmas Child volunteers at the charity's processing centres checked and loaded the shoeboxes for Belarus, Crimea, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Serbia and Ukraine.

Zoe Gregg, presenter for Operation Christmas Child, said: "People here have been brilliant. Times are quite tough for many, but they have still gone out of their way to pack a shoebox."