A FIVE-year-old boy has been beaten up just yards from his Hampshire home.

Little Josh Sherwood was playing on swings in the park next to his parents' flat when he was punched, kicked, throttled and hit with a stick by two older boys.

The youngster's injuries concerned doctors so much that they kept him in hospital overnight.

Yesterday, he was back at home nursing cuts and bruises to his face, head, ears, neck and back.

As Hampshire police launch an investigation into the attack, his mum Laura Sherwood and stepfather Pete Ridout are warning other parents to be aware of the dangers facing children using seemingly innocent play areas.

Josh was playing just 20 yards from the family home in Paignton Road, Maybush, Southampton, when the attack happened in the middle of the afternoon.

Laura, 26, and Pete, 35, were upstairs in their first-floor flat, which has a balcony overlooking the play area, so they could keep regular check on their boy, who they describe as a "happy-go-lucky five-year-old".

When they turned their backs for five minutes to get ready for a shopping trip, there was a knock on the door and a man brought Josh in, saying it looked like he had a nosebleed.

As he suffers from nosebleeds Laura took him in to clean him up but when she got him into the bath it soon became apparent his injuries were much more serious.

"I asked him why he hadn't come up earlier so it wasn't so bad, but when I got him undressed I could see the bruises on his neck and ear, and that his back had been hit with something," she told the Daily Echo.

Laura contacted police and took him to Southampton General Hospital, where she stayed with him overnight while X-rays and other checks were carried out to determine the extent of his injuries.

She can't believe anyone would attack a child so young.

"There's no words for it," she said.

"I'm absolutely disgusted. Who in their right mind would do that to a five-year-old child?

"He's only telling us about it in dribs and drabs, but it was two of them on bikes, probably aged about 13 or 14.

"We're not going to be letting him out of our sight from now on."

Anyone with information should contact PC Whitnall at Shirley Police Station on 0845 045 4545.