The children, who spoke to The Mail on Sunday about their incredible experience for the first time, said yesterday: “We feel really proud – it was awesome.” When they observed the helicopter circling, they were on an Easter egg hunt in the midst of a field close to Capel, Surrey. They were between the ages of six and twelve.

“It was really noisy, and we could see it said “police” on the bottom,” a nine-year-old girl recalled. Then we noticed a man racing along the field’s edge. The man was seen removing his jumper and wrapping it around his head.

They were attempting to yell at the pilot, she continued.

She went on to explain that despite their efforts to yell and scream for the chopper to turn toward the man, it was really pointing in the opposite direction.

Two of my pals then remarked, “Let’s get into an arrow,” and we positioned ourselves on the ground.

The kids saw the helicopter coming after resting in the mud for about a minute.