QUICK-thinking 999 operator Yvonne McFadden saved an 83-year-old woman from a life-threatening ordeal.

Police heaped praise on the 28-year-old Blackburn night-shift operator after she answered an emergency call from the woman who had been brutally attacked in her home.

Crimewatch actors helped to recreate an incident in which a police officer was blasted at point blank range as he chased robbers after a raid on a post office van in Burnley.