GEORDIE beer drinkers have toasted the success of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge by downing 10,000 pints of a celebration ale in just under a month.

Beer drinkers got their first taste of the beer, brewed by Mordue Brewery, of Wallsend, to celebrate Gateshead's £22m tilting bridge, in the first week of September. Since then, pubs across the region have been struggling to keep up with demand.

The first night the beer went on sale at Wetherspoon's Quayside Bar in Newcastle, it sold out in under an hour - and the story has been the same at other local pubs.

Souvenir gift packs and bottles of the beer are also selling fast, with nearly 2,000 being sold at the newly opened Gateshead Quays Tourist Information Centre, Portcullis at the MetroCentre, and Fenwicks food hall in Newcastle.

The gift packs and bottles have proved so popular, that another run has been ordered, to meet the expected demand in the run-up to Christmas.

Other bridge gifts including T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, watches, mousemats and souvenir programmes have also been selling out at local Tourist Information Centres.

Councillor Mick Henry, deputy leader of Gateshead Borough Council, said: "We always thought Millennium Bridge Ale was a perfect way for local people to join in with celebrations around the bridge's opening, and we have been proved right - 10,000 times.

"The idea of creating a special celebration ale was, like the bridge itself, something that has really captured the imagination of the public, as we can see from the hundreds of people who visit the bridge and Gateshead Quays every day."