FAMILY and friends packed a funeral to pay tribute to 12-year-old Suffolk girl Tyne McCalla.The pretty and popular youngster, a pupil at Leiston Middle School, was found hanged in her bedroom on February 2 after going upstairs to play music.

FAMILY and friends packed a funeral to pay tribute to 12-year-old Suffolk girl Tyne McCalla.

The pretty and popular youngster, a pupil at Leiston Middle School, was found hanged in her bedroom on February 2 after going upstairs to play music. Her sudden death shocked and devastated her family and the local community.

In a moving and emotional service at St Margaret's Church, Leiston, music was played and hymns sung for the young girl, of Haylings Road, Leiston, who leaves her parents, Debbie and David, and brother Andrew.

They included Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and the popular hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful.

Mourners comforted each other as tributes were paid to Tyne, who was described as "a happy child" who was full of life.

The service was led by Reverend Malcolm Pickering, who called on the congregation "to be grateful to Tyne for all that she taught us".

"We still ask questions, and we are all moved by the death of one so young," he said. "We don't know why tragedies like this happen, but we are certain that it is not the will of God, because God himself became involved in our suffering through his own son."

He read out a poem from Tyne's family, in which she was described as "our little rose".

Deputy headteacher at Leiston Middle School, Jina Hoddy, who knew Tyne well, paid her own tribute to her, recalling how just a few days before she died she was complimenting her on her new haircut.

"Tyne was a popular girl. She had many friends. She was particularly popular with younger children. She used to watch out for them, play with them," she recalled.

She would remember her for "her kind heart, her smiling and happy face, her love for dancing, her new lovely hair cut", she told mourners.

"I shall miss her. In my prayers I have asked God to give all of us strength," she said. "Tyne will never be forgotten. She will always be remembered as a beautiful, happy, kind and considerate girl who was always full of life."