Since eight-year-old Sarah Payne went missing 18 days ago, parents with young children in the village of nearby East Preston have made sure they know where they are all the time.

Staff at East Preston Infants School have reminded parents to pick their children up themselves or tell the school if someone else is doing it for them.

Katrina Swain, of East Preston, said:"People have been very shocked because nothing like this has ever happened in this village before.

"I am absolutely devastated by the news that a body has been found. It gives me goosebumps.

"My son normally doesn't like having to stay in the garden, but since this has happened I have told him never to go too far away."

Canon Bryan Marshall, of St Mary the Virgin Church in East Preston, said he had been talking to the Payne family.

He said: "This has affected the whole community and we have been saying special prayers."

All around the villages of East Preston, West Kingston and Ferring, people have been gathering outside their homes and on street corners as the news has spread.

Three women in Kingston Lane, near the spot where Sarah was last seen alive, spoke about the shocking news.

One said: "This has really upset the whole community."

They praised the police, who they said were kind and sympathetic when they talked to local people.

Hundreds of residents spent days searching the nearby countryside, continuing even when the official search was called off.

Another woman in the group, who did not want to be named, said: "We have been comforting each other. We all have children and we cannot imagine what Sarah's family are going through."

Moyna Bunce, who works at Dillons newsagents, said it was a shock when copies of the Argus arrived announcing police had found the body of a little girl.

She said: "Everyone in the village is going to be dreadfully upset if this is little Sarah's body.

"I have seen many people look emotional when they have seen the paper.

"It has really affected people."

Mrs Bunce said: "I think the majority of villagers think it might be a local who has done this because people who don't know the area would never go to Kingston Lane. If you didn't know it was there you would never find it.

"Parents in the area are now going to be much more careful and I don't think many families will be going to Kingston Lane for walks.

"Its very distressing and upsetting. Sarah and her parents have been in our prayers."

Mother-of-two Rebecca Murphy said she no longer let her two girls, aged seven and four, play in Cheviot Close, where they live.

She said: "I grew up in this village and I thought it would be a good place to bring up my girls, but this has brought it home to me that you have to be careful everywhere.

"Since this has happened, I have told my girls they must stay in the garden when they are playing."

In Pulborough, near where the body was found, news of the discovery was beginning to sink in.

Yesterday, residents gathered in groups along the High Street to discuss the tragic find.

Drivers in the traffic jam caused by the closure of the road to the site where the body was found were horrified when told the reason for the delay. One driver burst into tears when she heard the news.

Motorist Peter Adams said: "I have a girl of six and this whole story had made me nervous about her safety."

John Carver, a regular at the Oddfellows Arms, said: "It's a tragedy.

"I cannot believe something like this could happen round here.

"I just hope the poor kid didn't suffer too much."

Newsagent Margaret Fox said: "I was praying they would find her safe and well, but we started to feel more despondent as the days went past."