CRIES of Lights! Cameras! Action! could be heard at a mining museum yesterday as children turned the place into a film set.

Called The Accident, the silent film at an ironstone mining museum has been made by primary school children.

The film depicts the life of the miner in the not-so-good old days and children directed, produced and stared in a story about a mining accident.

Volunteers at the Tom Leonard Mining Museum at Skinningrove, on the east Cleveland coast, received £6,250 from the Museums and Galleries Education Project to make the film. They then contacted Hummersea Primary School in nearby Loftus to provide 18 actors, a producer and a director.

"The children have really enjoyed it," said museum activities co-ordinator Mick Benson.

"They learnt about film and also something about what it was to be a miner.

"In the film we've had them in the village walking to work and then they hear an explosion. Some of them form a rescue party and they help out their friends on a stretcher. Of course, there's a happy ending."

Mr Benson said the film would be shown in the school. There are also plans for a premiere at Loftus Town Hall and it is hoped stretch limousines will be hired. The children, aged from seven to 11, also worked on research and filmed all last week.