AN eagle-eyed reader of The Northern Echo has helped a school left high and dry by the theft of a canoe.

The £500 two-seater Canadian canoe was stolen from King James First Community College, in Bishop Auckland, in the school holidays.

A reader saw the 17ft canoe under the water at Damn Head, near Bishop Auckland, after reading an appeal from the police in the Northern Echo

The walker alerted the police after pulling it out of the water and putting it on her car roof rack.