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tanker crashes off railway bridge during morning rush hour
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A TANKER carrying Calor gas has gone over the side of a railway bridge and landed on the line.

The emergency services were called just after 8.15am to the bridge on The Causeway, close to a station for the Wear Valley Railway line in Wolsingham, County Durham.

A Durham police spokesman said: "The emergency services are dealing with an incident which has happened within the last hour in the town of Wolsingham.

"Just after 8.15am the ambulance control room contacted the police to say they were on their way to a report of a Calor gas delivery tanker having gone off the bridge over the privately-run Wear Valley railway line in Wolsingham, next to the train station.

"The driver had managed to get out of the vehicle but had not been able to get clear from the scene. He believed gas was also leaking from the tanker.

"Police, fire and ambulance are now at the scene and the driver is being assessed by paramedics.

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"An exclusion zone of 100m has been established but so far there has been no need to evacuate any houses.

"We are advised the gas is potentially highly flammable and a road closure is in operation.

"At this stage it is not known why the vehicle went off the bridge."

Motorists were advised that The Causeway was closed in either direction for the foreseeable future.

One onlooker said the lorry appeared to have lost control, gone down the embankment and through a wall onto the railway line.

*It is less than two months since a 33-year-old local lorry driver was killed when his van, carrying oxyacetylene cylinders, exploded causing major damage in the Market Place, Wolsingham, early on a Saturday morning.