EIGHT new cases of foot and mouth were confirmed yesterday, including one near Thirsk, North Yorks, in a local cluster which is causing great alarm, and five more in Cumbria, where the disease is undergoing another major flare-up.

Because of the Thirsk cluster, footpaths in villages north of York have been closed and the famous 42-mile Lyke Wake Walk Race has been cancelled.

The race, over the North York Moors from Osmotherley and Ravenscar, had already been postponed from July 7 but because of foot and mouth, it has now been abandoned for the first time in its 37-year history.