Girl, five, is left 'heartbroken' after her mother is forced to remove her rainbow wall tribute to NHS staff battling coronavirus because of complaints from neighbours (5 Pics)

A five-year-old girl was left 'heartbroken' after her mother was forced to remove a rainbow tribute to NHS workers by her landlord following neighbour complaints.

Sam Gray, of Holbeach, south Lincolnshire, drew the rainbow with chalk onto the brick wall of her home in Pearl Court with her daughter, Sophie, on April 4.

The rainbow has become a symbol of gratitude to NHS staff and other frontline workers who are helping keep the country safe during the coronavirus outbreak.

However, the 43-year-old was left shocked after receiving a phone call from her estate agent telling her the landlord wanted her to remove it.

Sophie Gray, 5, drew a chalk rainbow with her mother Sam, 43, at their home in Holbeach, South Lincolnshire on April 4 

The chalk rainbow was drawn to to pay tribute to frontline NHS workers during the coronavirus pandemic

They said the landlord had received a complaint from someone about the drawing which faces onto the street and as a result it needed to go.

She said: 'I'd only just woken up when the estate agent rang up.

'She was really understanding. She said we understand why you've done it but we've got to act because the landlord has been in touch with us.

'It must be another neighbour who knows the landlord, because I don't even know who the landlord is and this is a quiet cul-de-sac.

Sophie was left heartbroken after her and Sam had to take the rainbow down following complaints. Sam says: 'You've got to be really sad to complain about a chalk drawing.'

'You've got to be really sad to complain about a chalk drawing.'

Sam removed the drawing much to the anguish of five-year-old Sophie.

'She was upset,' she said.

'We made it on April 4, so it's not been there a huge length of time. It was in quite a shaded area, so unless it rained really heavily it wasn't going to come off.

'We live in a two bedroom flat, we don't have a garden of our own, just the little bit outside on the ground floor.

A poster of handprints showing the colours of the rainbow was spotted today in Pontefract, west Yorkshire. The rainbow symbol has been used as a sign of hope and gratitude to the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic

'I drew the outline and Sophie helped me colour it in. I wanted it to be big and bright enough so people could see.

'It was just something to cheer up Sophie and cheer up the neighbours. I couldn't understand why anyone would complain.

'One of my neighbours said she couldn't believe it either. Everyone else I've spoken to can't believe it either.'

Sam received another phone call from the estate agents later in the day telling her landlord had decided the rainbow could stay on.

Will and Tom Lovell dyed their lambs with rainbow colours at Manor Farm in Barford St John in Oxfordshire yesterday 

It was too late though, as she had already removed it but fortunately for Sam one of her neighbours has come to her and Sophie's rescue.

'We haven't got enough chalk to do another,' she said.

'But one of our neighbours is letting Sophie draw one on their wall.'