MUSLIMS from across Worcester raised almost £4,000 in half an hour following a request for donations from Mayor of Worcester Allah Ditta.

Organisers representing Tallow Hill Mosque and the Committee of the Muslim Welfare Association have handed over a cheque for £1,917.50 - half of the amount raised to the Mayor's tsunami appeal.

The other half of the money raised was donated to Muslim welfare group Muslim Hands.

"The actual figure raised in that small amount of time was £3,835 and it was divided 50-50 with half donated directly to my appeal," said the Mayor, who was one of the mosque's original founders not long after arriving in the City in 1967.

"It came out of a personal request I made a few weeks ago for the association and Muslim worshippers at the mosque to help with donations, and they have responded magnificently with an enormous amount, all of it collected in under half an hour at end of Prayer Day that Friday.

"It's a terrific achievement on the part of the city's Muslims, and I applaud their efforts."

Friday is Holy Day in the Muslim calendar when the city's Mosque in Tallow regularly attracts up to 500 worshippers mostly from Worcester and Malvern - including the Mayor whose religion is, he says, his ''all''.