Staff from the Carlisle News & Star worked through the night following the news that a train had derailed in Cumbria.

Many of the team had been out celebrating education reporter Keir Mudie's birthday at a Carlisle restaurant when details started to emerge shortly before 9pm.

The party immediately broke up and Keir and photographer Jonathan Becker travelled the 45 miles to the crash site at Grayrigg, near Kendal, while others went back to the office.

A team of six reporters and three photographers worked on the story through Friday night, and with the help of sub-editors and newsdesk colleagues were able to get five pages of coverage into Saturday's paper, which printed an hour early at 7am.

This included an exclusive front page picture of the wreck, two pages of eye witness accounts, a colour piece from Keir and details from a 2am press conference covered by reporter Kelly Eve.

Keir said: "It was madness. We went down to the scene and, as you can imagine, there were police and emergency services everywhere.

"We were phoning copy and wiring pictures back all night. We went to the triage area where they were treating the walking wounded and spoke to as many people as possible.

"Eventually we were able to get past police and get witin just a few hundred yards of the wreck."

He added: "It's ghoulish but you wait for stuff like this.

"It was a fantastic effort to be involved with and makes you realise how talented the team you work with are."

Online breaking news also kept readers up-to-date at newsandstar.co.uk, which also has an invitation for readers to send in their own stories and pictures.

The 95mph derailment, which killed an elderly woman and left several people injured, involved a Virgin Pendolino train at around 8.15pm on Friday.

It was at Grayrigg, near Kendal, about half way between Carlisle and Preston, on a service travelling from London to Glasgow.