[Axiom]

A nine-year-old boy suffered knife wounds to his face and arms and his friend was left with life-threatening head injuries in a vicious attack, it has emerged.

The pair were found during a frantic search in the Brick Ponds area of Edlington, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, on Saturday.

Lisa Meehan, who helped to look for the children, told the BBC she had discovered the younger boy covered in blood and dirt.

She said: "I felt sick, I felt literally sick to my stomach. You couldn't see the boy's face for blood and muck, it was covered all over. It was just really horrific. You think of your own kids when it's something like that, and I suppose a lot of things enter your head. I just suppose I wanted to find the boys who had done it and the other boy who was missing."

The frightened youngster had no shoes and socks on, because he said his attackers had taken them and thrown them in a pond.

Ms Meehan added: "He just told my daughter that he'd been beaten up and that he couldn't find his friend, that his friend was lost.

"He told my daughter that they had a knife and that they cut him all over. There was blood dripping from his arms and his head."

Police were called at around 2.20pm on Saturday after the nine-year-old was found on Auburn Road by a member of the public. He was taken to Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

The 11-year-old was found critically injured at a nearby ravine and was air-lifted to Sheffield Children's Hospital and put in intensive care. His condition was critical but stable, South Yorkshire police said.

Officers stopped two boys aged 10 and 11 in allotments near the ravine and they remain in custody. Police are making house-to-house visits and a force spokesman said there was a "visible police presence" in the Edlington area.

My God....what is this country coming to??!