AN eight-year-old Scottish boy has died after falling down a lift shaft in a hotel in a French ski resort.

The screams of Euan Abel, from Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, were heard by his sister, Heather, 14.

Dr Graeme Abel, 42, the boy's father, last night spoke of his family's grief and said he hoped his son's organs would help save other children.

The family was with a party of 26 friends, including 14 children, all from Clackmannanshire, for a skiing holiday in the popular Alpe D'Huez resort.

Dr Abel, his wife, Rhoda, who is also a doctor, and their two daughters, Heather, and Kirsten, 11, returned home last night.

Dr Abel said: ''The one positive thing that has come from this is that because Euan was able to get to hospital, he was able to donate his heart, both kidneys, his pancreas and both lobes of his liver for others. That will probably have helped six children who might otherwise have died.''

His son's organs were donated through the European transplant network. ''We have lots of anger yet to come. But hopefully, his heart is still beating somewhere in some other child who has been severely ill. Euan was always a very generous boy. This was something else he was able to give.''

Dr Abel said: ''Euan and his sister Heather had got up early to see off some friends who were going home on an earlier flight.

''They took the lift up to the next floor, and when they got out into the lobby it was in darkness because the lights were on saver-switches.

''Heather went across to push the time-switch, and Euan turned right into what he thought was a corridor. It was another lift shaft.

''The lift had got stuck between floors in the night, and the fire brigade had rescued the occupants. For some reason the lift doors had been left open.

''Euan just went straight down.''

Heather ran to get her parents. Graeme Abel ran to the ground floor and, with the help of a friend, was able to force the lift doors and climb into the shaft.

He said: ''I carried Euan out. He was unconscious and dying.

''They got him to hospital in Grenoble. He had emergency surgery for a ruptured spleen, but we knew he had very severe head injuries, and over the next 48 hours it became obvious he wasn't going to survive them.''

Euan was a primary four pupil at Dollar Academy's junior school.

Mr Abel has been a GP in Alva for 17 years, while his wife has worked at Orchard House, Stirling, since 1985.

The French authorities have ordered an investigation.

Meanwhile, a boy sparked a mountain rescue alert at lunchtime yesterday in the Cairngorms.

The nine-year-old from near Buckie, in Moray, was overcome by the cold while he was with members of his family on a walkthrough the snow-covered Lairig Ghru pass.

He was with his father and two brothers and the group turned back when the father realised that his son could be suffering from hypothermia.

A Sea King helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth took the boy to the National Outdoor Training Centre at Glenmore Lodge, where he recovered after a warm bath.