A 12-foot long dragon is helping Keighley’s newest bakery celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Poundbakery, which opened last month in the Airedale Shopping Centre, has hung the dragon on the ceiling on promote its special range of snacks.

Staff members will get into the spirit of the season by wearing themed costumes to herald the Chinese Year of the Monkey.

The dragon is traditionally thought to bring good fortune and drive out bad luck.

Poundbakery area support manager Peter Stamp said: “We found that not many people were doing much to celebrate Chinese New Year, which for 2016 is on February 8.

“Everyone does Valentine’s Day and Easter and other traditional British occasions but the wider global celebrations are picking up in popularity so we thought we’d mark it in store.”

The Poundbakery snacks include include Chinese chicken curry pasties, sweet and sour pork pasties, hoi sin duck baguette, Chinese five spice baguette, honey chicken wrap and chicken and sweetcorn soup.

Peter, who specialises in opening new Poundbakery branches, celebrated his first Chinese New Year in 2015.

He said: “It was very well received at that store. We had several members of the Chinese community coming in and saying the food was great and that’s the ultimate compliment really.”