Generous shoppers have donated trolley loads of toys for child victims of domestic abuse.

Tesco customers have donated five trolley loads of gifts for children in refuges across Essex this Christmas.

Epping Forest District Council chairman, Mary Sartin, attended the store in Waltham Abbey on Thursday to oversee the collection.

Cllr Sartin said: “Forced out of their homes, they sometimes have little or nothing with which to celebrate Christmas, but the kindness and support of local people has been simply overwhelming.”

Caroline Wiggins, the council’s community safety manager, is also organising collections with staff at the council, the Theydon Oak pub in Coopersale Street, Epping and St Winifred’s Church in Manor Road, Chigwell.