NORTH Yorkshire police have been congratulated for their handling of the Selby rail disaster.

A meeting of the county's police authority heard that the force had been praised by agencies with more experience of dealing with emergencies on such a scale.

Deputy Chief Constable Peter Walker, who was in overall command of the operation immediately following the crash, said: "It was a huge commitment which came upon the force at extremely short notice.

"It was enormously impressive as an operation and I have taken away from it a sense of pride in the way the force responded.

"People who deal with this sort of incident regularly have said we handled it well."

Baroness Harris of Richmond, chair of the North Yorkshire Police Authority, said: "It has raised the profile of a police force which deals with different issues each day in a professional manner."

Councillor John Duggan, chair of Selby District Council and a member of the authority, said last month's disaster had put Heck on the map for all the wrong reasons.

"What happened, Hollywood couldn't put together," he said, referring to the chain of events that led to the crash.

"If they had come up with a scenario like this it wouldn't have been believed.

"I'm sure the movie will come, but I would like them to remain silent for quite some time."

The meeting heard that in the first 24 hours following the crash, in which ten people died, a telephone helpline received 1,800 calls from people worried that relatives may have been on the train.

The calls came from as far away as Australia and Canada.

Updated: 07:40 Tuesday, March 27, 2001