NEWCASTLE was once a tropical paradise similar to the islands in the Bahamas, it has been disclosed.

Scientists drilling deep beneath the city have discovered fossil evidence of exotic shells and coral.

The 300-million-year-old rocks were extracted from limestone 1,000 feet below the ground during a £900,000 green energy project to harness geothermal power from the earth’s crust.

Engineers watched a plume of steam gush from a borehole in Newcastle City centre when the drilling reached its target depth at dawn yesterday.

The renewable resource will be used to heat hundreds of homes and provide power to buildings near St James’ Park.

Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability director professor Paul Younger said: “We are trying to harness what really is about the lowest carbon form of energy there is.

“Today we’ve hit very hot water, which is very good news for us. The more rapidly the temperature of the water increases with depth, the better.

“It’s already at 50% higher than the UK average for that depth, which gives us a lot of options.

“There isn’t really a limit to what we might gain from this. There is a huge volume of hot water down there; we could go on adding boreholes to run systems alongside this wherever there is the opportunity.”