A 12-year-old boy who choked on a piece of wood buried inside a pie said he was scared when his dad was forced to dislodge it from his throat.

Cameron Jones, who lives at Blenheim Grange near Watton, had sat down for dinner with his family and tucked into a minced beef and onion pie.

After finding it difficult to chew, he tried to swallow.

The Wayland Community High School pupil said: 'Something got jammed and I started to cough and choke. Dad had to pull it out.

'It was really scary.'

Paul Jones does not usually eat with his wife and children because of health problems but had come through to the kitchen to collect something.

He told Cameron to keep calm and open his mouth and was able to reach in and pull the piece of wood out.

A small piece broke off and was swallowed but the father kept hold of the remaining splinter which was about 1.5in in length.

Mr Jones, who also has a six-year-old daughter called Paige and 15-year-old son Connor, said the wood was painted green and looked like it had come from a crate.

'If you smell it, it's still got the pie on there,' he said. 'It was only a small pie. That sort of thing shouldn't go un-noticed.'

The McDougalls frozen deep-crust pie was bought from Morrisons in Dereham on December 5.

As soon as they discovered the wood on December 9, the 41-year-old father called the manufacturer to report it. He was told a sample envelope would be posted to him so he could send the splinter back for analysis but a week later had not received it.

A spokesman from Northern Foods, McDougalls' parent company, said the envelope had been sent out the same day.

He added: 'We are sorry to learn about this and will be investigating once we receive the product to understand how this could have happened. McDougalls has stringent production processes in place and this is clearly a surprise to us.'

Mr Jones said the company did not seem concerned enough about it but the consequences could have been tragic if Cameron had continued to choke. He said: 'All I want is a letter saying sorry. I got it out before anything seriously bad happened to him. He was fine afterwards - but I don't think he realised how scared me and my wife were.'