Funeral today for 11-year-old Burnley schoolboy who was ' beautiful and intelligent with the world at his feet'

A community will gather to pay their respects to Raffi Ahmed Pownall for the service at Burnley Cemetery at 3pm.

Muslim prayers will be held at Nelson Central Mosque an hour before that at 2pm.

Raffi died in the Royal Blackburn Hospital after he was taken there from his home in the Marsden Road area on Saturday afternoon.

Police confirmed there are no suspicious circumstances and a file has been passed to the coroner.

Raffii, who lived with his parents, Ayesha and Tom Pownall, was the grandson of award winning playwright, novelist and prolific radio dramatist David Pownall.

A pupil at Barrowford Primary School, Raffi had recently passed his 11 plus exams and won a place to study at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School. He would have been due to start there in September.

Raffi also did religious studies at the Ya Sin Institute in Nelson where staff paid tribute to him on social media as "a lovely boy who was a pleasure to teach, a beautiful child full of life, intelligent and superseding his age.

"Our condolences, thoughts and prayers are with Raffi's family. Words are not sufficient to describe this loss."

The tribute added: "This is an extremely painful and difficult time for his parents, brother, family, teachers, friends and classmates.

"He was an absolute joy to be around and this is a great loss for us."

A family friend paying tribute to Raffi on social media said she was 'totally lost for words and completely heartbroken.'

She said: "Raffi was such a beautiful boy, amazing soul and spirit with the world at his feet. He was blessed to have such a wonderful family and they were blessed to have him."