A 15-year-old schoolboy has been hailed a hero after tackling a mugger.

Jonathan Dale saw an elderly woman being robbed on his way home from school in Guiseley on Wednesday last week.

But instead of turning a blind eye, Jonathan, a pupil at Guiseley School, ran after and challenged the thief.

The pair argued and eventually, the thief handed over the purse and ran off.

Jonathan, who lives in Queensway, Yeadon, checked how the shocked woman was and even walked her home.

Shaken up, but fortunately, unhurt, the woman offered Jonathan money for his good deed, but he refused.

And when his grandmother Irene Willis, from Renton Drive, heard about her grandson's antics, she decided that people should hear some good news.

Mrs Willis, who is in her 70s, was so proud of her grandson that she called the Wharfedale and Airedale Observer.

She said: "Jonathan witnessed an old lady being mugged and he didn't stop to think, he just ran up to the thief and they appeared to exchange a few words, but Jonathan managed to get the purse back.

"It is lovely that he did such a thing, and as he said, it could have been me - I'm sure that the lady must have been someone's grandmother.

"The woman said 'I cannot thank you enough, because I do not know what I would have done without you.'

"I am just so proud of him and teenagers do get such bad press because there are bad ones out there.

"But I want people to see that some teenagers are good."

She added: "I would like to think that if I had been that lady someone would have stopped and helped me, but I'm not sure that they would."

Jonathan was this week too modest to talk about his good deed, but his mother, Sally, added: "We are all pleased by what he has done, but quite shocked as well because Jonathan said that the thief was a lot bigger than him.

"He told me that the thing that shocked him the most was that there were lots of cars passing and nobody stopped.

"Surely somebody else saw what happened.

"The woman would have been all on her own with no purse if Jonathan hadn't been there.

"I am really proud because it is not often young boys do come to the aid of people."