A COUNCIL is investigating whether a horse chestnut tree from which a 13-year-old girl fell while collecting conkers has a disease which weakens branches.

Hyndburn Council leader Coun Peter Britcliffe said the council's tree officer would look at the 20ft horse chestnut tree in Milnshaw Park, off Lancaster Avenue, Accrington, to see if it is dangerous.

The girl sustained serious injuries after she fell 15ft out of the tree while collecting conkers. She was in the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Pendlebury, with head and internal injuries and a broken leg.

The fall comes a week after Hyndburn Council warned parents that the borough's conker trees were stricken with a mystery disease that left them unsafe because they were prone to drop branches.