A MULTI-million pound state-of-the-art firefighter training centre has officially opened.

The £11m centre, which is one of the most advanced in Europe, has opened to train firefighters from across the region.

The facility on Wellington Street in Bury will put firefighters and other professionals working in the emergency services through their paces and sharpen their skills.

It offers trainee firefighters a variety of real life scenarios and emergencies that have been built around a real-size terraced street.

The student firefighters will be able to tackle emergencies including house fires and car crashes.

The centre will also help provide a learning environment for children on the dangers of fire, how to prevent it and how to make an emergency call.

Children from St Stephen's School, Bury, performed the ribbon-cutting on Friday morning to mark the centre's official opening.

The new centre had been five years in the planning and has been built on former industrial land.

Chairman of the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue, Councillor David Acton, said he believes it is "value for money".

Cllr Acton, said: “The safety centre will be a unique facility that will be used by schoolchildren and families from across Greater Manchester and beyond, with all welcome to visit and learn about the dangers of fire and much more.

"This centre is an asset to Greater Manchester and we hope will ultimately deliver training that will save the lives of people in our community. It is a fantastic place and a real statement of intent, from us as a service, committed to being one of the best fire services in the country.”

Cllr Acton said the current training centre based in Manchester would be closed down and the land sold off to offset some of the costs of the new centre.

"This centre is value for money in that it will provide a fantastic state of the art facility which will provide training for firefighters over the next 20 to 30 years.

"Firefighters are on the front line, whether it be responding to terrorist events which happened in London, and explosion, a car crash a fire in a multi-storey building, a vehicle in water and at this new centre we are able to replicate all of those scenarios.

"Currently, we send our firefighters to Warwick for them to do some of their training, which includes accommodation costs, and we will save money by training them here."

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by a number of dignitaries including the Mayors of Bolton, Bury and Oldham and Bury South MP Ivan Lewis.