NEARLY 1,000 people packed a small North-East church over two nights to hear legendary preacher Nicky Cruz.

The former New York gang leader told his remarkable story at the Christian Life Centre, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

It was one of only three venues on his first tour of the UK for nine years and attracted people from as far away as Liverpool and Manchester.

The event generated so much interest that church leaders had to arrange an extra night to accommodate everyone who wanted to see him.

Mr Cruz told his life story - from his hate-filled childhood with his witchcraft-practising parents in Puerto Rico to his years as the notorious leader of the Brooklyn street gang known as the Mau Maus. He also told of his meeting with scrawny street-preacher David Wilkerson, who helped him turn his back on a life of drugs, violence and bloodshed and embrace Christianity.

Spokesman Julian Clark said the event demonstrated the church's need to find somewhere to build bigger premises so it could stage similar events.

He said securing Mr Cruz was a major coup and the event had more than lived up to expectations. "I knew there would be a big response, but we were surprised about how far and wide people came from. Normally Nicky Cruz is in an auditorium rather than a church and that was different for him. He felt it was more intimate and more personal and he really enjoyed it."

* Read Andrew White's interview with Nicky Cruz in The Northern Echo next week.