Pensioner killed delivering gifts

AN ELDERLY woman was killed as she delivered presents yesterday - one of several Christmas Day tragedies around the country.

Elizabeth Giacopazzi, 74, of Tweedmouth, Northumberland, died instantly after being struck by a car as she crossed the A1, south of Berwick-upon- Tweed. She had been delivering Christmas presents.

A passenger was killed early yesterday when he leaned out of a car window and hit his head on a tree, police said.

The accident happened at 1.40am at the Herriard Crossroads in Ellisfield, Hampshire. Police said last night that they were still investigating the incident.

A 10-year-old boy suffered head and leg injuries in an accident involving a police car in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, on Christmas Eve. The boy, who has not been named, is in intensive care at Newcastle General Hospital, where a spokesman said he was "poorly but stable".

Earlier in the week a nine-year-old boy was killed in a car crash on his way to visit Santa's grotto at Marwell Zoo near Winchester in Hampshire. Patrick Kaye died when his family's Renault Espace collided with a lorry on the Spitfire Link Road.

In Glasgow, a 63-year-old man died in a Christmas Eve blaze in his tenement home. Police discovered the body of John Leatham, at Stirlingfauld Place, in the Gorbals area of the city, shortly after 7pm.

In a separate incident, five people were taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary for treatment for burns and smoke inhalation following a blaze in the East End of the city. The fire broke out shortly before 2am yesterday in a ground floor flat in a tenement block at Riddrie Knowes, Riddrie. None of those taken to hospital were thought to be seriously injured.