The Karate Kid: London schoolgirl, 6, is youngest black belt in Europe

Kechelle deSouza Dalton doesn't get much trouble from bullies.

As a six-year-old black belt in karate, it's not hard to see why. She is the youngest ever practitioner of the martial art in Europe to gain the highest belt.

Kechelle, of Tottenham, developed a taste for karate before she could walk, after watching her brother Lamar practise from her pram.

She started training at the age of three, attending gyms across London four times a week.

Kechelle said: "My brother was doing it and I thought it was going to be fun and then I tried it. When I first started I said to my mum I liked it."

Her mother Michelle, who owns a hairdressers in Archway with her husband Kevin, said her daughter does not hit other children because she has been taught karate should be self-defence.

Mrs deSouza Dalton said: "I like the fact that she doesn't hit kids. She doesn't use it unless she has to. The teacher has always instilled that in her."

However on one occasion she confronted a bully who attacked her: "One boy came up and was hitting her and she said, 'Please stop. If you do it one more time, you'll be sorry.' And he didn't stop, so she blocked and punched him. And he sat down and cried."

Mrs deSouza Dalton added that she was "very proud" of her daughter: "From the time she could speak, she said, 'I want to do karate,' so I asked the instructor what age she could start and he said he would have a go and see if she could focus."

Kechelle, who attends the Rosary School in Haverstock Hill, received her black belt at her class in Belsize Park last night. Lamar, 13, was awarded a black belt earlier this year, when he was still 12.

Kechelle practises five days a week, and her training regime means her mother has to drive her to classes all over London, from Highbury to South Kensington.

When she gets home, she often practises into the night until her mother sends her to bed.

In a few years' time, Kechelle hopes to take her talent to the Karate World Championships. She said she was "very happy and excited" to receive her black belt and wanted to be a karate master "then a doctor" when she grows up.

Her instructor, Shihan Alex Constantinos Sylvan, vice-president of the martial arts federation of Great Britain, said: "It is amazing to see such determination and discipline from someone so young. I believe we have the making of a future world champion here."