A church curate has praised the small community of Grayrigg at the weekend, for their "tremendous effort" in offering aid and compassion to the victims of the Cumbria rail crash.

|PIC1|The tiny village of Grayrigg is just one mile away from where the Virgin train derailed on Friday evening, and as soon as news spread about the disaster the small community rallied to offer help.

As emergency crews were dispatched to the area of the crash, Grayrigg's population of 223 were seen inviting the walking wounded into their own homes to offer them comfort and a place of rest.

Curate at nearby St John's Church, Beverley Lock, said: "All of Grayrigg has been wonderful and rallied around and done what it does best which is being a fantastic community.

"Everybody really cares about each other here and they made a tremendous effort to help in any way they could."

One Cumbrian Police Communication Worker, Peter Robson, was the first in the small village to receive information about the disaster, according to Newcastle's Sunday Sun. Robson had been watching television when he heard "an almighty rumble".

Thirty minutes later he received a phone call telling him there had been a major catastrophe on the railway, and that the local school building was needed to support the injured who were being helped by emergency workers.

The village opened up its school doors for police and paramedics to begin to shelter injured passengers who had escaped the overturned carriages.

Robson said: "It was pandemonium at the crash site and they started bringing the walking wounded up to the school in police vehicles but the roads were so congested it was hard getting people in and out.

"The Salvation Army and ambulance workers arrived and it became a camp for the passengers to register their names and details and have their injuries checked over before being picked up by relatives or taken to their destination by coach.

"Everybody was very calm and we took them to the school hall and gave them cups of tea and biscuits.

"Most were very subdued and didn't really want to talk about what happened.

"Around 83 passengers came to the school that night. The majority had cuts and lacerations to their faces and hands and looked dazed," he said according to the Sunday Sun.

He concluded: "About 40 people from the village turned up to help and were doing everything they could to offer assistance. The last passengers boarded a coach to Glasgow around 2.30am and we closed everything down around 3am. We're exhausted but just pleased we could help."