The Norwich Evening News is claiming its first victory in a fight for the truth on secret germ warfare testing.

The paper says that independent medical research shows a higher than expected number of deaths from oesophageal cancer – at 200 a year for Norwich, twice the national average.

The campaign to find the truth has been boosted with a promise from the Medical Research Council to examine whether the death rate can be linked to the experiments. The newspaper is to hand over its dossier to help the study.

In a further boost, local MP Dr Ian Gibson agreed to ask the Government for £50,000 to probe any links.

The Evening News reports how chemicals were released into the atmosphere above Norwich in a series of fly-pasts in 1964 by scientists from biological warfare centre Porton Down, in Wiltshire.

They wanted to monitor their dispersal and claimed there was no siginificant safety risk.

Evening News reporter Jane Denny, who has been coordinating the campaign, said more than 60 families had now contacted her in support of the paper's bid for an inquiry.

She also said that other areas of the country had been sprayed, and urged other newspapers to get involved.

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