Police in the northern English city of Liverpool have recovered the gates stolen on Friday from a children's home immortalised in a song by the Beatles.

Children playing in the grounds of Strawberry Fields, a Salvation Army home made famous by a Beatles hit of 1967, watched as thieves cut down the wrought-iron gates and made off with them.

A spokeswoman for Merseyside Police said the gates were recovered from the yard of a scrap metal dealer who had bought them in good faith, but became suspicious after hearing media reports about the theft. John Lennon spent many hours as a child playing in the park surrounding Strawberry Fields, and wrote the words to the Beatles hit Strawberry Fields Forever in 1967.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service