POLICE in Marlborough are investigating claims that 12-year-old Louisa Mallett was pulled from the eight-foot high roof of a playground shelter.

Louisa's parents say it's a miracle that the incident did not leave her paralysed for life.

Police are now looking into the possibility that Louisa, of Chiminage Close, Marlborough, did not fall accidentally from the steel shelter.

Louisa, a year eight pupil at St John's School in Marlborough, received suspected spinal injuries while playing with friends early on Thursday evening.

She was larking about on the roof of the shelter when, she said, she was pulled by the ankles and fell.

As she fell, she caught the small of her back on the corner of a steel bench under the shelter before hitting the concrete floor.

A friend of hers, also 12, ran for help and families living by the play area in Rabley Wood View dialled 999.

Louisa was flown to Swindon's Great Western Hospital in the Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

Her separated parents Deborah and Roger Mallett waited anxiously at her bedside for X-ray and test results, fearing she had suffered irreparable damage to her back when she fell.

After one X-ray, doctors said they were concerned about a mass which showed on one plate, but further X-rays revealed no spinal damage.

Both parents wept with relief when doctors eventually told them that their daughter had only suffered severe bruising.

Louisa is the oldest of three girls. Mrs Mallett was at home with her youngest daughter Laura, eight, and Mr Mallett was at work in the nearby Portfields Stores when their middle daughter Sarah-Jane, 11, ran to tell them Louisa had been hurt.

By the time the parents had run to the play area, paramedics with a road ambulance were already tending to Louisa and has strapped her to a spinal board stretcher and fitted her with a neck collar.

Louisa was suffering severe back pain and had lost all feeling in the lower part of her body.

The paramedics then called in the air ambulance to prevent Louisa's back from being jolted on the road journey between Marlborough and Swindon.

Louisa said that she had been playing with her friend and climbed onto the roof of the shelter. Two boys of 13, known to the girls, started larking about and one of them, who was on the ground, grabbed her ankles and pulled.

She said: "He was pulling me by my legs while my friend was doing her best to pull me back up."

Her father said: "We know the girls shouldn't have been up on the roof but all the kids do it. By the time I got round there the two boys had scarpered."

Mrs Mallett said the long wait while doctors examined Louisa was something she would never forget.

The police are now looking for witnesses to the incident. Anyone who saw it should call them on (01672) 512311.

nkerton@newswilts.co.uk