A regional newspaper website saw a huge increase in traffic as readers looked for the latest on a national breaking story.

The Herald, in Plymouth, has been printing overnight for 14 months meaning yesterday morning’s print edition carried nothing on the explosion at a house which killed a nine-year-old girl.

Rather than set the presses rolling early with a special edition, The Herald’s web team updated their site constantly throughout the day with copy direct from the scene, photos and video footage.

Herald web editor Neil Shaw told holdthefrontpage today: “It was hard work – we had the first story online within half an hour (of the incident).

“There were about 47,000 hits on the news section yesterday – well over double what it would usually be.

“That one story had about 17,000 hits but we saw elevated levels of views across other stories.

“We had 200 tributes to the girl yesterday and overnight and we were mentioned on Sky News.”

At about 7.50am yesterday morning nine-year-old Stephanie Hammacott was walking to school with her mother when the house exploded in the Southway area, north of the Plymouth.

The suspected gas explosion caused a wall to collapse, crushing the youngster under a pile of bricks.

The girl was pulled from the rubble but later declared dead at a nearby hospital. Four other people were injured.

The reporting team included Stuart Abel, Nicola Tapp, Tristan Nichols and Dominic Jeff, with pictures by Paul Slater, Penny Cross, Lucy Duval and John Allen.

The website carried video footage filmed by Herald reporter Tristan Nichols.

Today’s edition of The Herald includes a seven-page special report with pictures, tributes, in-depth analysis and more coverage.