Buckling under the weight of a blue shark, John Dine and his three fellow amateur anglers knew it was going to be a big ’un. It turned out to be the biggest specimen caught in Britain and they are due to seize the “catch and release” record from the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain.
The friends, from Essex, reckon that the 9ft-long shark, caught off Penzance, weighed 256lb. It is a considerable increase on the previous blue shark record of 214lb, which stood for 58 years. Mr Dine took an hour to bring in the shark using mackerel bait on a size 10/0 hook and a 400lb, 49-strand Fin-Nor rod and reel. The Shark Angling Club is assessing the claim.
Proms audience ‘told they could not wave EU flags’
The Proms have become embroiled in another row over Brexit after concertgoers claimed they were ordered not to wave their EU flags.
Pro-EU campaigners at the performance on Sunday by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales unfurled a number of flags but were told to remove them by staff at the Royal Albert Hall.
Remain voters were accused of hijacking the event last year when campaigners handed out more than 2,500 EU flags at Last Night of the Proms, a performance when traditionally members of the audience wave the Union Jack.
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Fiona Swann, 50, who attended the concert on Sunday, said EU flags were directly targeted. “Somebody came and told us we couldn’t put them there,” she told the Evening Standard. “They just said ‘it’s not allowed’ so I said, ‘that’s strange because flags are such a tradition at the Proms’. But he said, ‘not those flags’.”
Organisers denied that the flags had been singled out for being pro-EU. “Flags are permitted; however, our primary concern is the smooth running of the festival,” a statement from the Royal Albert Hall and the BBC said.
“On this occasion a small number of people with large flags caused disruption to the audience and performers at the front of the arena. In line with standard event management, staff intervened as they would for any disturbance in the hall.”
Man held on suspicion of missing girl’s murder
A 51-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a teenage girl who disappeared in 2003. Charlene Downes, 14, was last seen by her mother before she went to see friends on the promenade in Blackpool, Lancashire.
The suspect, who lived in the area at the time, is being held in custody for questioning.
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As part of the investigation into the girl’s disappearance, police are also investigating the wider issue of child sexual exploitation in the resort. Several arrests for historical sexual offences were made last year, though they were said not to be directly connected to the Downes case.
Milkman’s float stolen in ‘unprovoked’ attack
A milkman lost two teeth when he was attacked and his milk float was hijacked. The attackers also stole the man’s wallet and damaged a number of milk bottles.
The milkman, who is in his fifties, was working his round in Stanground, Peterborough, at 3.45am when he noticed three men near his float. One tried to steal a crate of milk and when challenged he assaulted the milkman. The three men then stole the vehicle, which was later found in the nearby village of Eye. Detective Sergeant Tom Rowe, of Cambridgeshire police, said it was a “nasty, unprovoked attack on a milkman innocently working his round”.
Ten crashes in 48 hours after new roundabout opens
Up to ten cars have allegedly crashed on a new roundabout on the A516 in Mickleover, Derby, within 48 hours of it opening. Drivers blamed “no lighting and no signage” as they drove straight over the island, which has been built by the developer Barratt Homes. Peter Hall, of Mickleover, said: “By my reckoning at least ten vehicles have had accidents within less than 48 hours of this new junction opening.” A spokesman for Derbyshire county council said the design had passed a safety audit, adding that the incidents would be “investigated as a matter of urgency”.