'Leave helicopter debris' warning

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People are being urged not to pick up wreckage from the Morecambe Bay helicopter crash that is being washed up on the Cumbrian coast.

Six men died and one is still missing after the 20-year-old helicopter crashed above an oil field off the Lancashire coast on 27 December.

Pieces of the craft have since been found washed up on beaches near Flimby.

Coastguards said people who see any of the wreckage should contact them with details of its location.

They will then pass on their details to the Air Accident Investigation branch team who are trying to discover the cause of the crash.

Six men are known to have died in the crash

The Eurocopter AS365N was on a routine flight over the gas fields of the Irish Sea when disaster struck 24 miles offshore.

Rig workers Robert Warburton from Heysham, Leslie Ahmed from South Shields, John Shaw from Kirkcaldy and Alfred Neasham from Durham were killed.

Pilots Stephen Potton from Blackpool and Simon Foddering from Preston also died. A search for contractor Keith Smith has been called off.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said bad weather had hampered the search for Mr Smith, 57, of Stockton-on-Tees, and "all that could be done in terms of search and rescue has been done".

The four dead passengers all worked for Centrica, and Mr Smith is an employee of one of its contractors, Costain Petrofac.

The Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) has launched an inquiry into the incident.