A group of Norfolk students stranded in Italy by the volcanic ash flying ban had been to study an eruption 1900 years ago.The A level geography students from Paston College in North Walsham were on a week-long tour which included seeing Mount Vesuvius and the city of Pompeii frozen in time by its cloud of volcanic ash in AD79.

A group of Norfolk students stranded in Italy by the volcanic ash flying ban had been to study an eruption 1900 years ago.

The A level geography students from Paston College in North Walsham were on a week-long tour which included seeing Mount Vesuvius and the city of Pompeii frozen in time by its cloud of volcanic ash in AD79.

They should have flown home from Naples to Stansted at the weekend, but had to find other ways back to the UK - and were due to arrive home on Monday tea-time after a coach and ferry journey.

Paston principal Peter Mayne recognised the irony that the youngsters who had been to see the impact of an ancient volcanic eruption had been caught up in the impact of a modern day one.

'The tour company has found them a way home, and we've had a call saying they are on the ferry,' he added.

Nine Paston students, and an unknown number from Sewell Park College in Norwich, were on the same five-day trip which also included a hydrofoil trip to the Isle of Capri.

Mr Mayne said about 15 of the six form college's 750 students, and a handful of staff, were stranded abroad in different locations from the Middle East to the Azores.