Shipyard cranes to move to India

Swan Hunter's cranes have long dominated the skyline

The shipyard cranes famous for mapping the skyline along the River Tyne in Newcastle are being dismantled and sent to India.

The owner of the Swan Hunter yard, Jaap Kroese, has sold off the heavy equipment to an Indian shipyard for an estimated £2.5m.

When he bought the yard 10 years ago he reportedly paid 40 times that amount.

Their final destination is the Bharati shipyard in Mangalore on the south-west coast of India.

Swan Hunter closed in July after the Ministry of Defence took an unfinished ship to a yard in Scotland.

Plans to establish the yard as a breaking business did not come to fruition either.