PRAYERS were said yesterday at Sunday services in Musselburgh for five-year-old Gavin Innes who was killed in a tragic accident with a golf club.

He was playing with friends practising shots in Lewisvale Park near to his home in Lewisvale Avenue after school on Friday. As one of his pals, also aged five, swung back a club it struck Gavin causing him to lose consciousness.

Frantic efforts were made by onlookers to revive him at the scene. An ambulance was summoned to treat a head injury. Gavin was rushed under police escort to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh where he later died from his injuries.

Gavin was a first year pupil at Loretto RC Primary School in Musselburgh. His parents Sinclair and Sharon Innes and their other son Calum were yesterday being comforted by relatives and friends.

Parish priest Father Joseph McMullan said that the entire community in the East Lothian town had been deeply shocked.

''The family are very upset, both the parents and his brother. He is only seven years old and does not fully comprehend what has happened,'' he said.

''The family were prayed for and the wee fellow was prayed for in all the masses on Sunday and Saturday. There is tremendous sympathy among the community about what has happened.

Gavin was a popular boy, well-liked and keen on football. Friends and neighbours laid flowers and teddy bears with Hibernian Football Club scarves at the scene of the accident.

Mrs May Johnstone, 69, who lives in nearby Grove Street, said: ''My grandchildren play in the park all the time, its always been regarded as so safe. The kids said when the little boy was hit it was terrible. He and friends were play fighting with the clubs when there was a thud and he fell to the ground.''

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Police said: ''We are investigating what happened but it appears to be nothing more than a very tragic accident. A report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal.''

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents urged parents to learn from the tragedy. ''Children can sometimes be quite boisterous and may strike out in play, but if they have a heavy object, such as golf clubs and other grown-up toys, it can lead to unfortunate consequences.''

q A nine-year-old boy died when a concrete sewage pipe apparently crumbled and fell on him on a building site. Simon Golding, of Normanton, West Yorkshire, was found to be dead on arrival at Pinderfield Hospital, Wakefield, following the accident near his home.

It is thought he was playing with four other boys on the building site opposite his home on Dalefield Road when part of the concrete pipe collapsed on top of him.