Blaze near city airport.

Fire crews spent more than eight hours battling a blaze at a farm near Newcastle Airport yesterday [Fri].

The blaze started in a field at Low Luddick farm, Callerton, Newcastle, at about 12.40pm, when 150 tonnes of hay caught fire.

The road to the west of Black Callerton, off the Woolsington Bypass, was also closed by police because of safety fears.

Electricity cables above the hay bales also caught alight and safety officials were called to the scene to make sure they represented no danger.

Flights were unaffected by the fire.

Email warning

POLICE have issued a warning after a bogus email was circulated trying to con people into a "get rich quick" scheme.

The email offers recipients the chance to receive a percentage of money transferred straight into their account if they hand over their bank details. Officers have warned people never to give bank details to anyone.

Daring appeal

DAREDEVIL volunteers prepared to walk on fire or glass are required to raise funds for a North hospice.

They are invited to take a barefoot stroll across 20ft of burning coals or 15ft of broken glass on Tuesday, October 17, to raise funds for St Cuthbert's Hospice in Durham.

For further details and a registration pack contact the Hospice Fundraising Department on [phone].

Chinese visit

FIFTEEN Chinese engineers will be arriving in Northumberland next week to see the pounds 9m Pegswood bypass being built.

The visitors are all lead engineers who are responsible for major road building programmes in the People's Republic of China and are on a fact finding tour of Europe.

Northumberland County Council is over halfway through building the A197 Pegswood bypass ( a 2.7km single carriageway linking Ashington and Morpeth that will take thousands of vehicles a day out of the former pit community.

Closing concert

HEXHAM Abbey Festival draws to a close tonight with a candlelight concert.

The week-long festival has attracted thousands of visitors to the town and tonight's concert in the Abbey starts at 7.30pm and The Cardinall's Musick will perform music written for the Sistine Chapel, including Allegri's Miserere.