A day out at the football took a terrifying turn for the Rooney family when they lost youngest son Leon, 3, in the large crowd.

Leon's dad, Del Rooney, raised the alarm and dozens of football fans stopped to help find the missing child who was later found safe and well.

The family was reunited with grateful mother Emma Rooney posting a message of thanks on Facebook which has been shared more than 15,000 times and received more than 35,000 "likes".

Mrs Rooney thanked the "old, young, teenage and the homeless" who helped search for her son in Liverpool, UK.

"My heart was broken as he ran off and out of sight and didn't come back," she wrote.

"But the people of Liverpool, strangers who know nothing of me or my family stopped in their tracks to help me find him.

"You did everything you could and I cannot thank you enough. To Merseyside Police, thank you. Thank you for arriving so fast. Thank you for doing everything you could to find my baby. Thank you for being so kind.

"But thank you to the people who found him, who knew he was alone and didn't leave his side until he was back with his family. I thanked all of you that I saw at the time and to those that I didn't and that read this thank you . . . I love the people of Liverpool."

The family, including older children Emily, 11, and Nathan, 10, were in Liverpool to watch their team, Everton, when Leon vanished in the teeming crowd.

"This is something I never experienced in my life," Mr Rooney said.

"Everyone was like: Right what does he look like? They were not bothered about what they were doing or where they had to be, it was all about Leon.

"I turned round and everyone was coming over to me. They said what's he wearing? I said a purple Everton kit, Adidas trainers. A group of men came up and said, 'Three lads will go this way, three will go that way'. I just burst into tears. The support was just overwhelming. You will never get that anywhere else in the world. That was a truly remarkable experience the way the people of Liverpool cam together.

"And the police were fantastic too. There's so many idiots in the world say things about Liverpool, same with the police, they never get good feedback. There's so many good things to say about Liverpool but people are brilliant.

"I'm glad this has got quite a few likes as it makes people aware the people of Liverpool are best people in the world."