Teachers from a school in northern Germany were forced to make a weekend dash to Ipswich to recover a weather balloon that went hundreds of miles off-course.

Their school at Dulmen in Westphalia - between Dortmund and Munster - had launched a weather balloon on Friday, August 18, as part of a scientific experiment.

It carried a camera and recording equipment and the balloon had been designed to collapse at 34km above the ground - and it was expected to be recovered not far from the school.

However the balloon did not collapse and was caught by high winds before it did collapse at 36km - by which time it was over Ipswich.

Its GPS tracker showed it was in the River Orwell near the bridge on Saturday - so teachers Thomas Reher and Steffan Droste set off to recover it.

East Anglian Daily Times: The balloon was launched by students from a school in north Germany.The balloon was launched by students from a school in north Germany. (Image: Steffan Droste)

They arrived in the UK on Sunday morning - but by the time they reached Ipswich it had moved and was caught by the pier next to the Ipswich sewage works.

The teachers were being kept up to date about its location by their colleagues in Germany.

On the Sunday they were struggling to access the balloon until they met Peter Dyson from Fox's Marina took them to where the Balloon was floating near the sewage plant.

Mr Droste said: "Peter was extremely receptive and helped us without hesitation.

"After a brief consultation with his colleagues, he took us to the pier in a freshly renovated fishing boat, where we were overjoyed to sight and salvage the probe.

"On Sunday we returned to Dülmen late in the evening, where the team of students happily received the cameras and the data logger."

On Monday evening, the data were evaluated together at a barbecue at Dulmen.

Mr Droste added: "We are very proud and grateful that we received numerous data and beautiful images from the stratosphere through the salvage."