A MOTORIST is today lucky to be alive after a brick thrown by children from a bridge onto the A12 smashed into his van.

Police last night launched a hunt for a group of children spotted with the brick on the Halstead footbridge near Colchester just after 3pm yesterday.

Also in Friday's Gazette:

  • A new supermarket is due to open in Colchester town centre this weekend.
  • You may not have heard of him, but 300 screaming youngsters queued outside Sainsbury's Tollgate yesterday morning to meet Conor Maynard - the "British Bieber".
  • A rogue trader smashed a wall belonging to an elderly dementia sufferer - then billed her for repairs.

All this and much more in your Gazette - only 43p. Remember, there's always much more in the newspaper than online.