A MAJOR European laboratory at the cutting edge of research into particle physics has received a visit from Keighley district school pupils.

The group of 16 year 12 and 13 physics students from South Craven School toured the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), in Switzerland.

A spokesman for their school explained: "We flew from Manchester to Geneva, and had amazing views of the Alps.

"We went to see the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator at CERN on the Franco-Swiss border.

"The LHC has a 28 kilometre circumference circular tunnel, and is shut down for maintenance in the winter allowing students to safely visit.

"We were taken on a tour of the detectors, control rooms and had a talk by a scientist operating and working at CERN.

"He discussed how the engineering developed there has been used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans, which are used to produce detailed three-dimensional images of the inside of the body, as well as to enable high speed Internet connections.

"During our trip we stayed in France, but visited Geneva for a meal."