A group of journalism students found themselves in the right place at the right time when a new development in the Madeleine McCann case broke this week.

For the guest lecturer giving a talk at Leeds Trinity and All Saints college was none other than the McCann’s spokesman, Clarence Mitchell.

Mr Mitchell was delivering a lecture to government press officers attending a Public Communications course run by the college when the Portuguese police announced they were winding down their investigations into the little girl’s disappearance.

Trainees on the college’s Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism course swung into action – and got their stories on air before the BBC and Sky News.

Rachel Jasper, one of the radio team providing hourly bulletins for Bradford Community Broadcasting (BCB Radio 106.6FM) doorstepped Mr Mitchell at 10.50am as he left his lecture. She had a story on air ten minutes’ later.

One of the postgraduate television teams broke off from a story they were covering in another part of Leeds to rush back to Leeds Trinity for their own report and found themselves vying for interviews with Mr Mitchell alongside Sky, BBC News, the Press Association, and local radio and newspaper reporters.

In the scrum were former Leeds Trinity postgraduates now working in the industry, including Alice Bailey, Radio Aire news editor, and Sophie Hazan, a senior reporter with the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Jason McCartney, postgraduate television tutor and a former Yorkshire Television reporter, said it was a “fantastic” opportunity for the trainees.

“They have seen at first hand the rolling news agenda in action,” he said. “Being given the chance to see how the professionals act on a real, live news story – and then to cover the story themselves – is a fantastic opportunity.”

After conducting a series of live and recorded interviews in the grounds of Leeds Trinity, Mr Mitchell did a live Radio 2 interview with Julian Worriker, presenting the Jeremy Vine show in Vine’s absence, from Trinity’s ISDN-equipped radio studio.

The technology allows Leeds Trinity to connect at studio quality to any radio station in the world which has similar equipment.