County Durham

A female parachutist has been seriously injured after she was blown off course and landed on a housing estate.

The North East Ambulance Service said it received a call at around 3.45pm to Shotton Colliery, County Durham.

The Great North Air Ambulance Service flew the woman to the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough.

The ambulance service said it sent two ambulances and a trauma team to the scene.

A 91-year-old man was hurt in a carjacking as he parked his car outside his own house.

The pensioner was pulled from his blue Renault Clio in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, by one man before two others jumped in and drove off.

He suffered a cut to one of his arms during the Friday night attack and was treated by paramedics at the scene.

Two men in their mid-20s and one aged 19 have been arrested in connection with the robbery.

Detective Chief Inspector Aelfwynn Sampson, of Durham Constabulary, said: "This was a callous crime carried out on a vulnerable elderly man whose car is his lifeline.

"I would urge anyone who can help with our investigation to contact us."

Former prison staff are being interviewed as part of an investigation into more than 900 claims of alleged historical sexual and physical abuse on inmates at a young offenders' centre in County Durham.

Durham Constabulary said 915 men had contacted officers claiming they were abused at Medomsley Detention Centre since the investigation was established in August 2013.

The ex-detainees were all in their teens when they were sent, for often relatively minor offences, to Medomsley from the 1960s until the centre closed in 1988, where they spent around six to eight weeks before being released.

A woman who used a flamethrower to kill weeds in her garden accidentally set fire to a fence, tree and telegraph pole.

Witnesses claimed flames soared 12ft into the air during the incident involving a blowtorch designed to tackle unwanted plant growth in Pity Me, Durham.

A County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said the aim was to expose weeds to intense heat, thus killing them, but not to "burn them to a crisp".

It advised gardeners to have some water nearby when using the garden tool.