A HEALTH and safety investigation is to get under way today after a six-year-old boy was crushed to death by a gravestone.

Reuben Powell was killed by the 5ft high slab when it fell on him as he played with friends in the Grove Road cemetery in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, on Friday evening.

Police said witnesses to the accident were being interviewed over the weekend, but this was expected to take some time because many of them were children.

A police spokesman said the Health and Safety Executive would begin their inquiry into the tragedy today.

A statement from Reuben's parents, Jeanette and Richard, released through the police, said: "Reuben was a much-loved, happy little boy. This terrible accident occurred while he was playing with a group of his friends. The saving grace was that he died without suffering any pain."

Reuben, of Nidd Vale Terrace, Harrogate, had been playing in the cemetery just before 7pm on Friday when the gravestone fell to the ground, trapping him underneath.

A police spokesman said it took three men to lift the slab off Reuben's body but ,when police and ambulance crews arrived shortly afterwards, there was no sign of life. The youngster was pronounced dead at the scene.

The tragedy came as Harrogate Borough Council was carrying out a programme of improving safety in cemeteries.

But council leader Michael Johnston said the work was expected to take several years and parents should discourage their children from playing in graveyards.