A seven-year-old has written a Christmas letter to Santa asking for peace in Syria rather than presents.

Aarush Anand was tasked with writing a letter about his Christmas wishes and said the recent events in Aleppo were in his mind as he put pencil to paper.

In the letter, the year three pupil at Nottingham High School said: "The only thing I want for Christmas is peace, like in Syria."

He signed off the letter: "Please give money to charities. PS Don't give me anything else."

Aarush's teacher at the school in Waverley Mount said he was "taken aback" by the heartfelt letter.

Speaking about it, Aarush said: "In Syria basically every day someone gets killed, and just not in Syria, in India and Pakistan too.

"Lots of people have come to attack them in Syria and it's not a very good atmosphere.

"I don't really like war, and I've been reading about the World War and nuclear bomb in Japan and I feel I don't really like it.

"Syria is like a mini version of a World War happening in one place and I thought I should write about Syria.

"One day if Syria gets free, it's going to be a really good thing because there will be lots of good things happening in Syria.

"Some people starve there. We are lucky that we have food here, and I'm lucky to come to this school and my mum and dad can educate me this much."

The letter was written on Wednesday as part of a festive-themed exercise, where teacher Richard Miller said the aim was to practice letter writing as well as getting into the Christmas spirit.

He said: "When I was teaching the children and talking to them about writing a letter to Father Christmas, we were talking about having an introduction, saying how is it in the North Pole and writing about some of the things they would like and how to conclude a letter.

"And then when I read Aarush's, I was quite struck.

"I felt emotional about it because it was the last thing I was expecting to read, that he had taken himself off to write something that was completely different, that was unexpected.

"I was really quite moved by that."