Work starts soon on refitting a giant oil production vessel which finally arrived on the River Tyne at the third attempt.

Thousands of ship spotters turned out to see the huge vessel, The Bonga, sail through the piers at Tynemouth on Saturday.

The 300,000 tonne Bonga is the largest vessel ever seen on the Tyne.

Attempts to sail the floating oil platform up the river were delayed on Friday because of poor weather conditions.

Football pitches

The giant ship is being taken to the Amec Yard in Wallsend, North Tyneside where it will undergo �300m of construction work.

The Bonga arrived off the North East coast last month after being towed 13,000 miles from South Korea but bad weather previously prevented it being brought up the river and it sheltered in Rotterdam.

The vessel will stay on Tyneside for up to 12 months before being towed to the Bonga oilfield off Nigeria.

The platform is roughly the size of three football pitches.

The Port of Tyne Authority and AMEC had been in practice for the Bonga's arrival.

A computer simulation of the vessel's process down the river was carried out at South Tyneside College's multi-million pound Marine Simulation Centre.