The Sun newspaper has apologised after a picture of the wreckage caused by the Croydon tram crash was accidently used to illustrate a story about a tram crash on Coronation Street.

The national newspaper published the photograph on its website yesterday morning on a story about an upcoming disaster in the popular soap opera, which referenced a tram crash in 2010 that left two characters dead.

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But when citing the old storyline in the Sun’s article, it included a picture of the tram that derailed in Croydon on November 9 killing seven people and leaving another 51 injured.

Underneath the picture it read: “Previous Corrie stunts include the tram crash that killed Ashley Peacock, Molly Dobbs in 2010 and an explosion that saw Anna Windass engulfed in flames this year.

The picture has since been removed from the website and the newspaper has apologised for the mistake.

A spokesman for The Sun said: “This was a human error and the photograph was removed as soon as we were made aware. We sincerely apologise for any distress it may have caused.”