An auction of 70 colourful Oor Wullie statues has raised £883,000 to build two new operating theatres at a children’s hospital in Dundee.

The replicas of the beloved comic book icon were displayed around the city as part of Oor Wullie’s Bucket Trail before being sold off on Tuesday night.

National and local artists helped decorate the statues for the project, coordinated by the Archie Foundation, DC Thomson and Wild in Art.

Bidders flocked to the Dundee Rep Theatre to get their hands on the statues, with successful bids ranging from £6,000 to the £50,000 paid for the ‘Oor Original’ Wullie by businessman Garreth Wood.

Other statues included a Tim Peake-inspired ‘Astro Wullie’, which raised £12,000, a design commemorating David Bowie, which went under the hammer for £19,000 and a design inspired by computer game Minecraft which fetched £34,000.

‘Tangerine Terror’, a sculpture inspired by Dundee United FC, was bought for £16,000 by the club’s chairman, Stephen Thompson.

The charity’s director of fundraising Cassie Thompson said the amount raised was “amazing”.

She said: “I can’t put it into words how I feel right now. It has exceeded our expectations so much more than I ever thought.

“The generosity in the room and on the internet, I mean it just goes to show how Oor Wullie, a national iconic character, just how far-reaching it has been.”

All proceeds will go to the ARCHIE Foundation for its project to build two new operating theatres at Tayside Children’s Hospital at Ninewells.