Six boys from the Palestinian West Bank have visited Chester.

The youngsters, aged 14-17, were with a group of people invited to the city by the Chester Friends of Palestine as part of a 10-day tour of England which started in London with Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association (CADFA).

They began their visit with a tour of the Roman city walls with chairman Dr Jonathan Puttock and were then formally welcomed to Chester in the town hall by Lord Mayor of Chester Bob Rudd who exchanged greetings with Fawaz Joma, Mayor of Beit Leid.

The Lord Mayor supported a group from Lache FC who presented the boys with souvenir footballs and personalised kits, funded from Cllr Alex Tate’s member budget.

Alex said: “It is truly inspiring to hear of the courage and fortitude of these young ambassadors from their country which is experiencing such traumatic conflict.”

Lache FC then hosted the boys at Goals in Chester and were joined by professional coaches from Chester FC and their mascot who kindly provided all the boys with Chester FC souvenirs and took them through the tunnel onto the pitch.

They were then welcomed to lunch at the Muslim Festival of Eid at Ellesmere Port Civic Ccentre followed by a public meeting in Chester introduced by Dr Puttock.