SIXTHFORMERS marked their departure from a Malvern school with an eye-catching stunt.

Pupils at The Chase Technology College were responsible for a mystery giant white stick man which appeared on the Malvern Hills this morning.

The creation, made of white bin bags, was a goodbye gesture from a group of students, who have now left the school to sit their A-levels.

Richard Pitt, 18, of Upper Welland, was one of those students involved.

"We have been at The Chase for seven years and Thursday was our last day," he said. "We just wanted to do something quirky to say goodbye without leaving any lasting damage. We decided to create a giant a stick man on the hill and make it so it was waving goodbye.

"We used almost 400 white bags and taped them together and weighted them down with pebbles, it was about 300 metres high. We wanted it big enough so everyone could see it, and it seemed to work."

The 10 students created the white man on the Malvern Hills in the early hours of today, but it was swfitly cleared away by the warden for the Malvern Hills Conservators, which looks after the hills.

Richard Vale said he spotted the giant figure on the hillside on his way in to work and went straight away to remove it.

"I don't know who put it there or what it was meant to represent," he said. "We had a similar prank last year in the same place that was also made of white bin bags and read Class of 06'.

"No harm was done but it had to be removed because the bin bags could have blown away, littering the hills."

Mr Pitt said the pupils had planned to remove the white man at the end of the school day.

He added: "We didn't want to leave any lasting damage or litter. It was just a bit of fun and I hope people saw it as such."