A 73-year-old American man has had to abandon his attempt to become the oldest person to swim the English Channel.

George Thornton, from Fort Collins, started his swim at Dover this morning just before 9am and headed for the French coast.

At 3pm today he was half way across the south-west shipping lane, and was said to be "going well".

But around 6pm he was forced to give up the swim, after nine hours 20 minutes in the water.

A retired university professor, Mr Thornton had been hoping to take the record from Roger Allsopp, from Guernsey, who was 70 when he swam the Channel in August 2011.