THE seven-year-old boy washed out to sea after playing on a Dorset beach is today fighting for his life in hospital.

Jack Shelton, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, was said to be in a critical but stable condition in the paediatric intensive care unit at Southampton General Hospital.

Parents Steve and Debra are keeping a vigil by his bedside.

The 35-year-old man who drowned off Chesil Beach trying to save Jack was a father-of two on holiday in Dorset with his family, police said.

A post mortem was carried out yesterday and police will not release his name until next week, when his next of kin have been informed.

The man, from Blackpool, who had been staying at the Freshwater Caravan Park, Burton Bradstock, had rushed into the sea from the park's private beach in a desperate attempt to save the boy.

Jack had been playing with his 11-year-old sister Jade on the shoreline when he was hit by a wave and dragged out to sea by the strong current. He was airlifted to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester after being rescued by a lifeguard and later transferred to Southampton.

A Dorset County Council spokesman told the Echo that as the beach is private there are no plans to put extra warning signs there. The authority spoke out after concerns that Freshwater beach is not properly equipped with safety equipment.

But the spokesman said: "Dorset County Council will be contacting the private beach owners to offer help about erecting signs to help prevent a future tragedy of this kind."