Firefighters are battling a large blaze at the Canterbury meatworks in Ashburton.

A fire in Ashburton gutted a local industrial building early this morning.

A train is believed to have ignited a large blaze that destroyed a vast crop and threatened to spread into nearby areas of Chertsey in Ashburton yesterday, firefighters say.

Verbal trespass notices have been served on ringleaders of a brawl between more than 30 people outside McDonald's in Ashburton on Sunday morning.

Ministry for Primary Industries officials have approved an incursion programme in mid-Canterbury following a spillage of one of Europe's most invasive arable weeds - black grass - found in a consignment of imported fescue seed.

The Methven resident was on his way home from Ashburton when he ploughed into three cows at about 7pm on Saturday.

An Ashburton university student suffered bruising after a heroic tussle with an intruder in her Wellington flat.

The truck driver who drove into the path of an oncoming train in May has claimed sun strike was the cause of the smash.

A truck was cut in half and debris scattered for 500 metres when it was hit by a train at a rail crossing in Ashburton this morning.

Samuel John Townhill, 39, pleaded guilty in Ashburton District Court yesterday to two charges of destroying the nests of black-billed gulls laid under the Wildlife Act.

A teenager accused of murdering Ashburton mother Sina Solomona has pleaded not guilty in Youth Court today.

Serious questions are being raised as to how the Ministry of Education allowed a bus company to compromise the safety and welfare of disabled children in Ashburton.

A teenager will reappear in Youth Court today charged with the murder of young Ashburton mother Sina Solomona.

Mystery surrounds what caused a power outage that left two thirds of urban Ashburton in the dark on Tuesday night.

Colin Hogg finds a southern town steeped in heritage.

A top doctor is urging pregnant women not to panic about high nitrate levels in Mid Canterbury water - despite earlier spotlighting the potentially fatal health risks.

A three-year old Canterbury girl is recovering in hospital after contracting a life-threatening disease while feeding a baby lamb.

A woman who died when she was hit by a train today near Ashburton had been the subject of a police pursuit earlier this morning.