A woman who left her belongings on a train ran after it for almost a mile along the tracks.

The 34-year-old, who has not been named, risked her life in a bid to catch up with the train at the next station. The student was plucked to safety by staff on another train travelling between Burnley Central and Burnley Barracks in Lancashire.

Police said her actions were “incredibly dangerous” and issued her with a £50 fixed penalty notice for trespassing on the railways.

DNA of Christmas trees

Scientists have said they are making progress on a huge project: mapping the DNA of the Christmas tree.

Scientists want to identify the billions of DNA building blocks in the genetic code of the conifer, which is the umbrella term for trees like the spruce, fir, pine and cedar.

That should help in breeding and forest management.

Cracking that genetic code is a challenge because it is so huge - six times bigger than the code for humans. But teams in the US and Canada recently reported preliminary results for the loblolly pine and the white spruce.

Black swans are reunited

A pair of Australian black swans have been reunited after a lovers’ tiff.

The birds returned to their home on Queen Mary’s Gardens Lake in Regent’s Park, London, yesterday for the first time since being separated in 2011.

The couple have been together for almost seven years but were split up for six months after they began bickering to “cool off”.

Wildlife officer Dave Johnson took the female swan to another pond in the gardens, only to later find the swan left behind was searching for its mate.

After a trial reunion, preparations were made to move them back to their home.

The lake was desilted as the water quality had been deteriorating, which means the swans have returned to a much-improved home.

Andrew Williams, the gardens’ assistant manager, said: “The male and the female tend to mate for life so it was a little unusual that they fell out.”