WHEN thieves stole Faye Sellers' Christmas present after an accident in the street, the nine-year-old was left distraught.

She was walking home from a friend's house along Water Lane, in York, on Tuesday, when she was in volved in an accident with a car.

But while she lay bleeding on the ground, heartless thieves took her present, a silver Seagram MYX-2 mobile phone, and ran off.

Staff at mobile phone shop The Link, in Market Street, heard about the theft and were so sickened that they decided to give her a new one.

"The theft was absolutely disgusting and shows what the world is coming to," said manager John Exley.

Faye, of Elston Close, York, who suffered a leg injury, a lump on the head and cuts and bruises after the incident said she was delighted with the shop's offer.

Her stepfather, Daniel Hendy, said: "It restores your faith in people. Since it happened she has been completely deflated, so this is a really nice gesture."