Schoolboy Ehsan Rahman was devastated when he lost his mobile phone and thought he would never see it again.

But a passer-by found it in the street in London’s East End and cycled over to the boy’s school to return it to him.

It has confirmed “the kindness of the community”, the school said.

Ian Mikardo High School Head Teacher Claire Lillis commented: “At a time when the world is full of tragedy and tension, I wanted to share this good news with the community as an example of how we can and do work together for the common good.”

Ehsan’s teaching assistant Jerome Weatherman had kept ringing the lost phone.

Five hours later, cyclist Nick Fearn, 45, who lives nearby, found it lying in the road.

Nick said. “I know how much we all value our phones. I spotted the phone in the road and thought it would get broken, so I put it in my pocket and hoped the owner would ring.”

Nick, who works at Evans Cycles in Canary Wharf, knows what it’s like when your mobile phone goes missing.

“I lost my own phone once and someone was good enough to return it,” he added. “So I was really chuffed when Ehsan’s phone rang.”

Nick cycled over to the school in Bromley-by-Bow to hand back the phone to Ehsan who was “over the moon”.

The 12-year-old thanked him and said: “I was going to save up to buy a new one.”