FAMILIES winged into Victoria Square this afternoon to watch hundreds of butterflies being released into the Bolton sky.

Butterfly breeder Ray Sandiford brought along 300 red admirals to be set free outside the town hall.

Mr Sandiford, from Breightmet, organised the Big Bolton Butterfly release in a bid to raise awareness about the plight of the creatures, whose numbers are in decline.

He also wants to encourage more children to get involved in conservation.

And six lucky youngsters, who had their ticket numbers drawn by The Mayor of Bolton, Cllr Roger Hayes, were able to help with the release of the striking insects.

Gasps and cheers rang out from the huge crowd as they fluttered their way to freedom.

And once the red admirals had been released, youngsters then had the chance to tempt them to land on their hands by feeding them with bananas.

Mr Sandiford said: “I wanted to get public awareness that butterflies are on the decline. I’m Bolton born and bred so what better place to do it? It’s a fantastic place to release the butterflies.”

And he said he was delighted by the big turnout for the event: He said: “This was absolutely fantastic, having a crowd like this turn out was just great.”

He added that he usually breeds four types of butterfly — the red admiral, small tortoiseshell, comma and peacock.

But this year he has been unable to find the caterpillar to breed peacocks, while small tortoiseshells have been ‘very scarce’.

Mr Sandiford hopes to spread the word that people can help butterflies by leaving a patch of nettles in gardens as a habitat and leaving ripe fruit outside for food.

“I hope people take away the message that all is not lost, we can make it better by what we do in our gardens. People can help the four common types of butterfly.”

Among the children to feed a butterfly with banana was Grace Reddyhough, aged 11, from Heaton.

She said: “It was really fun and I learned a lot as well — I found out they are worth a lot of money and I didn’t know they were going extinct.”

Her dad, Daniel Reddyhough, added: “I thought it was excellent, very informative. It was a good afternoon out for the kids and nice for the community as well.”