Elephants are able to differentiate between ethnicities and genders, and can tell an adult from a child - all from the sound of a human voice.

This is according to a study in which researchers played voice recordings to wild African elephants.
The animals showed more fear when they heard the voices of adult Masai men.
Livestock-herding Masai people do come into conflict with elephants, and this suggests that animals have adapted to specifically listen for and avoid them.
The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: BBC Nature
Watch how elephants use mud as a sunblock
Prof Karen McComb and Dr Graeme Shannon from the University of Sussex, who led the study, explained that in previous research they had used similar playback experiments to reveal that elephants could tell - from the sound of a lion's roar - whether the animal was a female or a more dangerous male.
Other studies have shown that elephants respond with fear to the scent and even to the red colour of the Masai clothing.
"I've experienced that," explained Prof McComb.
"If you give a Masai man a lift in your car, you can see the elephants behave in a different way around you.
"They're much more wary of the car and you see a lot of smelling and listening."
Prof McComb wanted to find out if the animals used their very acute sense of hearing to identify a potential threat from humans.
The scientists recorded Masai men, women and children saying, in their own language, "look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming".
They also recorded Kamba men saying this phrase.
While cattle-herding Maasai people often encounter free-ranging elephants, which can result in violent conflict, the Kamba people's more agricultural lifestyle does not generally bring them into aggressive contact with the animals.
When the team played recordings of these different voices through a camouflaged loudspeaker, they found that elephant family groups reacted more fearfully in response to the voice of a Masai man, than to a Kamba man's voice - retreating and bunching together defensively.
And the adult male Masai voices triggered far more of these defensive reactions than the voices of women or boys.
An additional and unexpected finding was that when the researchers changed the pitch and frequency of the voices - making a male Masai voice sound more female - the elephants would still react in the same way as they did to the original recording.
"That suggests they're using completely different cues [to us] in order to attribute gender," said Prof McComb.
Frans van der Waal from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, a researcher and the author of several books on animal behaviour, wrote in an accompanying article in PNAS that this finding suggested we had "much to learn about how elephants make decisions".
He added in an interview with BBC News: "Making these kinds of fine distinctions in human voice patterns is quite remarkable."
Prof McComb said the research showed that elephants were "trying to adapt" to human threats.
"Humans are undoubtedly the most dangerous and versatile predators the elephants are faced with these days," she said.
Prof de Waal added: "The more we understand about how elephants navigate their physical and social worlds, and how their behaviour continues to adapt to ever-changing threats, the better able we will be to effectively work to protect them in the wild."


A BBC Spotlight film has triggered an international criminal investigation that has broken up the infrastructure used by scam mail fraudsters.

The investigation was sparked by the story of a 74-year-old widow from Northern Ireland who lost thousands of pounds.
Her plight was first revealed a year ago.
In a follow up exposé BBC Spotlight's Chris Moore follows the money - across Britain, Europe and America.
The pensioner, identified as Elizabeth, told BBC Spotlight how she was scammed out of £180,000 in one year.
Most of that money went on telephone scams, but more than £5,000 went to mail fraudsters.
From the scam letters still coming through her letter box, the BBC Spotlight team identified PO Boxes in Holland that she sent her money to and discovered many belonged to Dutch businessman, Erik Dekker.
After viewing Elizabeth's interview in last year's programme, Dutch tax and fraud investigators began an investigation of Erik Dekker.
In June, armed investigators raided his mail packaging business, Trends Services. Inside, staff were opening envelopes and removing cash and cheques from victims.
An armoured truck came every day to collect the victims' payments.
They also found €500,000 (£418,000) in cash in 60 different currencies inside.
The Dutch investigators shared BBC Spotlight's information about Erik Dekker with the United States Postal Service.
They had long suspected Erik Dekker of handling money on behalf of fraudsters but now they were able to piece together a fuller picture of his involvement in a scam scheme in which $18m a year was being collected at Erik Dekker's office in Utrecht, using the same PO boxes that had been used to con Elizabeth.
BBC Spotlight also examined the cheques that Elizabeth sent to Holland. Using the information on the back of the cheques the team discovered that they were cashed in three high street banks in England.
In one example, 38 of Elizabeth's cheques - all crossed and made payable to 32 different names - were deposited into a single bank account in Chorley.
BBC Spotlight established that the account belonged to a payment processor - a company that provides financial services, mostly for mail order businesses.
Financial experts say that payment processors can be used as a shield from detection by scammers to launder their fraudulently obtained cash.
Spotlight also has discovered that the payment processor that cashed these cheques was part of the PacNet group of companies that the US government has designated a transnational criminal organisation that, it claims, for 20 years has knowingly processed money for a number of different mail fraud schemes in America.
Tuesday's Spotlight investigation is on BBC One NI at 22:45 GMT and available on BBC iPlayer from Wednesday.
You can view the programme trail here.


Scotland's motor trade has reported another record month for new car registrations.

A total of 44,826 units were sold, an increase of just over 2.5% on the same period last year.
The UK as a whole saw the number of cars sold rise by 6% to 492,774, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
March is typically a strong month for car registrations, as it is when new number plates are released.
Scottish Motor Trade Association chief executive Douglas Robertson said: "We are very pleased to see another record month for Scottish new car registrations.
"Though the increase is small, it is close to what we expected.
"Whilst fleet and business sales have increased over the last 12 months, the Scottish market remains consumer-driven and we have little doubt that the availability of PCPs and other finance options continues to drive the market."
Top Scottish sellers in March
1. Vauxhall Corsa  3,095
2 Ford Fiesta   2,471
3. Ford Focus 1,294
5. Renault Clio 1,240
5. Vauxhall Mokka 1,179
Source: SMMT
The biggest-selling car last month was the Vauxhall Corsa, followed by the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus.
Commenting on the figures, Euan Murray of Barclays Corporate Banking said: "The UK and Scottish motor trade's winning streak continued last month in record style, with new car sales lifted by March's all-important plate change and strong demand for fleet vehicles.
"The question on everyone's mind is how long this phenomenal run can continue and whether April will be able to drive home another record month."


Who should the world really thank for delivering a comprehensive, ambitious agreement that promises to deal with the issue of climate change over the course of this century?

Laurent Fabius? Christiana Figueres? Francois Hollande?
Certainly all three played hugely significant roles. There are many others, Al Gore, Mary Robinson, Laurence Tubiana among them.
But perhaps we should also consider another, more accidental climate change "progressive" - George W Bush?
Under the terms of the Paris deal, countries will come up with their own national proposals on cutting carbon and these will be reviewed every five years in an effort to increase ambition. These will be voluntary. The key element is the fact that this is a bottom up approach to tackling the problem.
For decades the UN tried to foster a top down solution. The world would come together and the big powers would negotiate and decide on the level of carbon cuts that needed to be made.
In Kyoto in 1997 the big three, the US, EU and Japan, worked out their commitments in exhausting late night sessions.
When President Bush took office in 2001, he immediately repudiated the Kyoto process.
For the next six years his administration was viewed as hostile in the extreme to both tackling the issue of climate change and to the UN approach.
But in 2007, the President outlined an alternative way forward.
The Bush team proposed that the major global economies responsible for the vast majority of emissions come together and each publish national plans that would outline the way they would curb carbon from 2012 to 2030. The concept was termed "pledge and review".
Fast forward to December 2015 and 195 nations of the world seems to have signed up to a version of an idea cooked up by the Bush Administration to sidestep the broad based, consensus approach of the UN .
Oh the irony!
An important caveat is the role played by President Obama in taking on the Bush bottom up approach and making it something every country should implement, not just the very big emitters.
"This is sort of a new, neo-liberal way of governing climate change, it's voluntary, it's bottom up and it's not clear that it's going to deliver in the end," said Prof Timmons Roberts from Brown University in the US.
"What has surprised me this year is how much more positive 2015 is, than when this was first brought into the system in Copenhagen by Obama himself and the BASIC countries (Brazil South Africa, India and China), getting this pledge and review system in place and solidified in Cancun in 2010."
Other commentators say that while the idea may have come out of the Bush administration, the very fact that they were associated with it meant that no one wanted to touch it while he was in power.
"President Bush did absolutely nothing to support an agreement before 2009, and nothing in terms of domestic policy," said Prof Michael Jacobs, who was climate adviser to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown at that time.
"Although the concept of "pledge and review" was popularised by him it was rejected as long as it was him that was promoting it!
"It was the Obama administration and the EU who turned it into a viable concept for the negotiations."
We humans are an odd bunch - try and tell us to do something and we'll immediately resist.
Ask us nicely and tell us we don't have to do it, and everybody falls into line.
This is exactly what happened with national climate plans, termed INDCs (intended nationally determined contributions).
"Nobody wants to be told what they have to do but when they are asked to come forward with some voluntary actions sometimes they will surprise you," said Prof Roberts.
"It's unbelievable that 187 countries came in with their plans - it's stunning!"
Another irony for the US is that the Paris Agreement comes under the UN Framework Convention signed by the first President Bush in 1992.
Because that treaty was passed by the US Senate, President Obama will likely be able to sign the Paris outcome without having to put it to a vote he would certainly lose.
And while he may have played a role in developing the bottom up approach, it's unlikely there were any phone calls of congratulations from Paris to the Bush home in Texas on Saturday night.
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc.
COP 21 - the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties - saw more than 190 nations gather in Paris to agree new global pact on climate change, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the threat of dangerous warming as a result of human activities.
Explained: What is climate change?
In video: Why does the Paris conference matter?
Analysis: Latest from BBC environment correspondent Matt McGrath
In graphics: Climate change in six charts
More: BBC News special report (or follow the COP21 tag in the BBC News app)


Chester Zoo has called for reassurances that a species of newt will be protected if test drilling for gas takes place in their habitat.

Anti-fracking protestors set up camp at Upton, near Chester, in April 2014 to prevent testing by energy company IGas.
The protestors were evicted last week after they were served with a court order to leave in November.
The zoo has said the site may be home to great crested newts, whose habitats are protected by European law.
Energy firm IGas said it was "fully aware" of its responsibility to protect wildlife.
A Chester Zoo spokesman said: "We have made representations to IGas, Cheshire West and Chester Council and Natural England with regard to safeguarding the great crested newt.
"It is a European Protected Species which we believe may be present on the land on Duttons Lane, Upton.
"We have also written to IGas to request assurances that there will be no adverse impact on the boreholes used for some of Chester Zoo's water supplies."
Nine people were arrested during the operation to remove the group of anti-fracking protesters from the proposed test drilling site.


Some employers are "refusing to consider" applicants commuting on the Great Eastern Main Line because of reliability issues, an MP has said.

Colchester MP Will Quince has asked the transport committee to investigate the train route operated by Abellio Greater Anglia in the East of England.
"There is a very real risk to jobs from these continuing problems," he said.
The train operator apologised to customers for recent delays and said it was working to "improve performance".
The company received complaints on Tuesday afternoon when a signal problem closed the line between Chelmsford and Witham for more than three hours.
"Poor rail conditions" also led to some trains suffering "wheel damage" in recent weeks, the company said, with some routes shut due to problems caused by leaves on train lines.
In a letter published on Twitter, Mr Quince said: "I have received reports that some employers are refusing to consider applicants who commute in using Abellio Greater Anglia given the unreliability of the service".
He said he had been alerted to the issue by recruitment consultants and constituents but "was bound by confidentiality" from disclosing further details.
Mr Quince said his own researcher was caught up in the resulting delays.
"He experienced signal failures between Chelmsford and Witham, a tree falling on the overhead line at Ingatestone, the 20:30 Liverpool Street to Norwich breaking down at Kelvedon, and the 20:38 Liverpool Street to Colchester Town experiencing technical problems at Witham," he said.
"Unfortunately, this level of disruption is all too common."
The Conservative MP, who is a member of the transport select committee, wrote to its chair Louise Ellman to formally requesting an emergency session on "recent service issues".
He cites other examples of recent issues including congestion due to late-running freight trains, delays due to wet leaves on the track and cancellations due to staff shortages.
David Burch, director of policy at Essex Chambers of Commerce, said he was not aware of any businesses adopting the policy but agreed improvements must be made.
He said: "We do completely agree that services on the Great Eastern Main Line are in need of improvement. As members of the Great Eastern Rail Taskforce we fully support objectives to see major improvements to both the rolling stock and rail infrastructure on the line, which we hope will alleviate many of the issues."
In response to Mr Quince's concerns, a Greater Anglia spokesman said the company was working with stakeholders and politicians to make the case for the investment needed for improvements.
Network Rail apologised for Tuesday's disruption and said Â£170m was being invested this year on the line between London and Norwich.


Burton Albion midfielder Matty Palmer has signed a new two-year contract.

Palmer, 21, has featured in all four of Burton's matches so far this season and has made a total of 110 appearances for the Championship club.
"He's certainly a big part of our plans," boss Nigel Clough told BBC Radio Derby.
"He was one of those we thought might actually find it better in the Championship with better players around him and a bit more time on the ball."
Palmer, who made his first-team debut for Burton in 2012, was not a first-team regular last season and spent part of the second half of the campaign on loan at Oldham.
"It's been a big turnaround for him. He's only young as well - he's 21 and there's plenty of time," Clough added.
"He's probably our most comfortable player on the ball. He gets moves started up and can play anywhere in midfield.
"He has to be better on the defensive side, but he did some work in the gym in the summer and we've seen the (physical) difference."


The operation to recover the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia could take up to 10 months, Italy's top rescue official has said.

The 114,500-tonne ship ran aground on rocks off the Italian island of Giglio on 13 January, with more than 4,200 people on board.
The number of people known to have died in the disaster stands at 17, with another 15 still unaccounted for.
Bad weather has already delayed searches and fuel pumping operations.
Dutch salvage company Smit had begun to remove the more than 2,300 tonnes of fuel on Friday, but says it now hopes to begin work next week, amid fears the fuel could leak and damage the vulnerable coastline.
Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy's civil protection agency, said the first goal of the recovery mission had been to find survivors.
"Now we have a single, big goal, and that is that this does not translate into an environmental disaster."
He said it would take up to two months for salvage companies to respond to a call for tenders from the ship's owners, Costa Corciere.
"Taking into account the constraints that weather and sea conditions may impose, it will take seven to 10 months to remove the wreck," he told the Ansa news agency.
"We already knew that this was a very long, drawn out case but I think it's important that everyone is very aware that it will have a very significant timeframe."
Experts monitoring the ship's stability on the rocks said it had shifted 3.5cm overnight on Sunday because of high winds and waves.
That forced divers to suspend their searches of the ship on Sunday morning amid safety concerns.
But Mr Gabrielli said searches for the missing passengers and crew would resume quickly, citing "the moral imperative to return the bodies to their families", AFP news agency reports.
The captain of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest in his home town of Meta di Sorrento, near Naples, while his actions are investigated.
He is accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated. He denies the allegations.


Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan were among those who had to be evacuated when a big fire broke out at a lavish cultural show in Mumbai.

The show was part of an economic event, "Make in India", designed to encourage foreign investment.
Video from the scene, in an enclosure on Chowpatty Beach, showed the fire blazing under a stage as dancers up above continued their act.
VIPs including the state chief minister had to wave at them to stop.
Reports say the blaze, caused by a short circuit, was brought under control and no-one was hurt.


Syrian Kurdish fighters say they have taken control of the Islamic State-held town of Tal Abyad, cutting off a major supply route for the jihadist group.

Reinforcements are being sent by the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) to help secure the main road south to Islamic State's headquarters at Raqqa.
The fighting has prompted thousands of civilians to flee to nearby Turkey.
The YPG advance has been supported by Syrian rebel groups and air strikes by the US-led coalition against IS.
For the Kurds, capturing Tal Abyad allows them to link up the other pockets they control along the Turkish border, from Iraq in the east to Kobane in the west.
"The whole city is under our control and there is no more fighting," Huseyin Kocher, a Kurdish YPG commander in Tal Abyad told the BBC.
"Our people should know that we are going to clean all the remnants of IS in northern Syria."
YPG units advancing from the east and west reached the outskirts of Tal Abyad on Sunday, after days of fierce clashes during which they seized a string of villages.
On Monday afternoon, the units met south of Tal Abyad after taking the road to Raqqa, which is 80km (50 miles) away, a YPG commander said.
A spokesman for the Syrian rebel group Burkan al-Furat, which is fighting alongside the YPG, said there had been "intense clashes" in eastern and southern Tal Abyad.
The Kurdish assault and US-led air strikes have prompted more than 16,000 civilians to flee their homes and cross the border with Turkey.
The refugees were stranded at the border fence over the weekend after Turkey closed the Akcakale crossing, saying it would only allow them to enter in the event of a humanitarian tragedy.
But, on Sunday afternoon, dozens managed to cross through holes cut in the fence before being rounded up on the Turkish side of the border by Turkish soldiers.
Later, refugees were seen passing through Akcakale after local officials said they had been given permission to reopen the crossing by the government in Ankara.
Up to 3,000 refugees arrived at the crossing on Monday, Turkish state television reported.
This is not the first time Syrian Kurdish forces dealt a blow to Islamic State. But if the Kurdish YPG manages to hold on to Tal Abyad, it will be the most serious one.
The border town, which lies 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State, is one of the most important border gates for the extremist group.
Syrian Kurdish forces have already shown they can be a match for IS during their resistance in the nearby border town of Kobane.
But the coalition air strikes, which are co-ordinated with the Kurds, proved to be a strong factor in helping the Kurds to succeed.
Kurdish forces have built up their campaign against the group by recapturing the strategic Abdulaziz mountains to the southeast of Tal Abyad and enlisting support from Arab tribes and FSA factions, including the Euphrates Volcano, alongside Assyrian Christian militia.
Forces belonging to IS are stretched and are fighting several groups of regional forces deep in Iraq and Syria.
YPG fighters have been moving into IS territory on either side of Raqqa province since forcing the jihadists to withdraw from Kobane in January.
The US deputy special presidential envoy for the international coalition against IS, Brett McGurk, said on Sunday that the Kurds were "really giving a beating" to IS.
But on Monday, a group of 15 Syrian rebel factions accused the YPG of carrying out a "sectarian and ethnic cleansing campaign" against Arab and Turkmen civilians from Tal Abyad and the western countryside of neighbouring Hassakeh province as it advanced into IS territory.
YPG spokesman Redur Khalil strongly denied the allegation, calling the rebel factions "bankrupt".
In a separate development on Monday, rebels shelled a government-held district in the second city of Aleppo, killing at least a dozen people and wounding more than 100 others, including many children, activists and state media reported.


A woman died in a flat fire after a fridge freezer in the lounge exploded and was turned into a "Bunsen burner", an inquest heard.

Neighbours attempted to save 29-year-old Samantha Thomas from the blaze on Shakespeare Road, Cwmbran, on 19 May.
She and fiance David Fields were sleeping in the lounge when they were woken by the bang and he managed to escape.
Senior coroner for Gwent David Bowen concluded her death was accidental.


A work thought to be by Dutch artist Frans Hals that sold for a reported £8.5m ($10.8m) has been declared fake.

Sotheby's said it had "rescinded the sale and reimbursed the client in full" after tests revealed the painting, An Unknown Man, was "undoubtedly" forged.
The investigation followed reports that a sophisticated forger is at large.
The forger is also believed responsible for a painting attributed to Italian master Orazio Gentileschi that was loaned to the National Gallery.
The painting, David Contemplating the Head of Goliath, was loaned to the gallery by its current owner in 2013 and was on display until March this year. It has since been returned.
The National Gallery said it "undertakes due diligence research on a work coming on loan as well as a condition check", and that these were carried out on the painting.
Another disputed work, attributed to Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, was seized by authorities in France in March after doubts were raised about its authenticity.
The work had been loaned to an exhibition in Aix-en-Provence by Hans-Adam II, the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein.
According to The Art Newspaper, the work came on to the market in 2012 and was sold "in good faith" to the prince in 2013.
Page one of any decent guide to the business of acquiring artworks should spell out in bold letters, BUYER BEWARE.
Unless you have bought the painting or sculpture directly from the studio of a living artist, you are running the risk of buying a fake.
On the plus side, science is increasingly playing a part in authenticating artworks - but then a top notch forger tends to find ways to stay ahead of the game.
Provenance is all. If you want to reduce the odds of purchasing a fake, then you need the paperwork that details all past owners and what they have done to conserve the piece.
The more gaps in an artwork's "backstory", the greater the opportunity for Mr Dodgy to get to work. In the parlance of the motor trade, you really need to see a full service history.
Fakes are far more common than many in the art world would admit in public. Uncertainty is rarely good for business. But then just look at the success of shows like Fake or Fortune, which appear to have an endless supply of tales to tell.
Sotheby's said that "with the agreement of the seller" of the work thought to have been by Hals, which was sold in 2011, it had "informed the buyer of a possible issue with the authenticity of the painting".
It subjected the Hals painting to "an in-depth technical analysis" after links emerged between it and the Cranach.
Sotheby's said the tests "showed the presence of modern materials used in the painting in a way that meant it could not have been painted in the 17th Century".
Speaking on Radio 4's World at One, art historian Bendor Grosvenor called the case "extraordinary".
"What is amazing about [the painting] is the quality and the fact that it's not a copy," he said.
"Whoever has subsumed the aura of Hals when he painted this also came up with a totally fresh composition.
"If these [paintings] are fake, and I believe they are very likely to be, we are dealing with the best faker of all time."
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


Jeremy Corbyn is fit to lead the country, Ed Miliband has said as he ruled out being a "back-seat driver" for his successor as Labour leader.

Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today that Mr Corbyn had a large mandate which he was entitled to interpret in his own way and he would not provide a "running commentary" on his leadership.
Asked whether Mr Corbyn was capable of serving as PM, he said "of course".
Some MPs have privately questioned Mr Corbyn's suitability for high office.
Asked repeatedly on Sunday whether Mr Corbyn and his allies were fit to run the country, shadow business secretary Angela Eagle said all politicians have "strengths and weaknesses" and she was committed to "working with the people the party gives me to work with".
She said she would not answer a question that was purely designed to generate a media headline.
The Labour leader is at odds with many of his MPs over a number of issues, particularly defence and foreign policy, while his response to the Paris attacks and the terror threat facing the UK has been criticised by some of his MPs and shadow cabinet.
He is facing a potential rebellion by Labour MPs over airstrikes in Syria although there is broad support for his anti-austerity economic approach inside the party.
Mr Miliband, who stood down as Labour leader in May after the party's election defeat, said he would not be a "back seat driver" in his capacity as a backbench MP although he would speak out on issues that he felt strongly about, such as climate change.
Asked about the direction Mr Corbyn was taking the party in, Mr Miliband said he believed the Labour leader wanted a "fairer country" and he "admired" the fact he was drawing on a range of thinkers to develop its economic policy and address the key question of how to reduce inequality.
"He has set out what he believes his mandate is which is for anti-austerity, a different approach to foreign policy and participatory politics."
Asked whether Mr Corbyn's could win power, he said he was "not in the predictions game" and that was a matter for voters.
"In the end that is a decision for the electorate as I discovered to my cost. That is a decision the electorate have to make."
He added: "I am not going to be a back seat driver... I made a decision that as soon as I stepped down as leader I wasn't going to provide a running commentary on my successor. He is going to argue it in his own way."
But Mr Miliband said he believed the party was in a stronger state now, in terms of its membership, than it was going into the election.
"Jeremy Corbyn has doubled our membership and I, myself, have seen that in my constituency.
"I am seeking to work out how we use these new members so we can do what we didn't do fully under me which is become a community organisation which is a presence in communities up and down the country."
In the Today interview, Mr Miliband said climate change represented the "ultimate challenge" to politics and it was vital a deal was reached on limiting future global warming at a UN conference in Paris next week.
Mr Miliband, who was climate change secretary under Gordon Brown, said that if agreement wasn't secured to limit rises in temperature to a maximum of two degrees celsius it could prove "catastrophic".


A group of Post Office staff plan a series of strikes over Christmas in a dispute over pay and jobs.

The workers - who deliver and collect cash from post office branches - will walk out on 23 December, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and 2 January, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said.
The action follows a one-day stoppage last week.
The Post Office said that all branches will remain open despite the strikes.
The CWU warned it also planned to ballot staff working in Crown Post Offices for industrial action next month.
The dispute centres on the 1,500 employees working in the Post Office's admin and supply chain, who the CWU says have been threatened with 28% job losses.
"We will continue with our plans for further industrial action until the Post Office removes the very real threat of compulsory redundancies from negotiations.
"There are no circumstances under which we would accept compulsory redundancies of workers in the Admin and Supply Chain," said CWU Deputy General Secretary Dave Ward.
In response, Keith Rann, the Post Office's head of supply chain, said the plan for further strike action was  "irresponsible and misguided".
"We must make changes to reduce our reliance on public money and sustain our business, and we cannot meet their unrealistic demands for the taxpayer to pay for the continuous employment of people who we cannot find a role for within our business," he added.
The Post Office said it is offering the supply team and the administration team a "fair and affordable pay offer" of a 6% increase over three years.


Work has started on a £2.7m project to redevelop part of the Port of Newport to increase cargo volumes.

Once complete, Atlantic Shed will provide an extra 7,200 sq m (668,000 sq ft) metres of storage for the port, mainly for the steel industry.
Associated British Ports said the investment meant the site would be able to meet the increasing demands of its customers.
It said the development would support the future growth of the port.


A confidential report highlighted concerns about officers drinking alcohol on duty and poor morale among staff looking after protected witnesses following a gangland murder in 2002.

Kevin Nunes, 20, a suspected drug dealer from Wolverhampton, was found dead in Pattingham, Staffordshire.
Five men jailed for his murder were cleared on appeal in March 2012.
The report was published following Freedom of Information requests made by the Express and Star newspaper.
The Staffordshire Police report from November 2006 concluded the "sensitive policing unit" needed "radical restructuring".
For more on this story and other Staffordshire news
The redacted copy of the 2006-07 Management Review said a complaint by an officer "exposed failings in the structure, procedures, working practices, culture and management" of the unit, which was later disbanded.
The report detailed failings including a breakdown in trust between officers, concerns over officers drinking, poor morale and friction between staff members.
It found a decision to change staff assigned to protected witnesses in the Nunes murder case created "open resentment" and "unrest" within the unit.
It also led to complaints by the witnesses against one officer.
The review was commissioned following an informal meeting between the head of the unit and the head of professional standards at Staffordshire Police at the team - Supt Jane Sawyers, who is now Staffordshire's Chief Constable.
It said the review team concentrated in particular on the unit's involvement with the Nunes investigation, "which was the main reason why DI [name redacted] decided to approach Supt Sawyers".
In March 2012 five men convicted of Mr Nunes' murder were cleared by the Appeal Court.
The court heard concerns about the credibility of the key prosecution witness were not disclosed to the defence.
Two of the men cleared have begun legal action against the force.
Staffordshire Police said the "sensitive policing unit" was disbanded in 2007 and the management of protected witnesses had been carried out on a national basis since 2012.
Last March, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said four senior officers, including Chief Constable Sawyers, would not face misconduct hearings over claims they failed to declare evidence in relation to the shooting of Mr Nunes.
The watchdog said it found "no evidence of a cover-up or of wilful omission".
Nick Baker, Deputy Chief Constable in Staffordshire, said: "The content of the report shows that the actions of some of those in the unit 10 years ago is not one that now, or at the time, met the high standards we expect of officers and staff working for Staffordshire Police.
"Any mistakes or misconduct were of a professional, not criminal nature, and tackled according to the force's disciplinary process, as set out in the review."


You wait more than 15 years for a new Ghostbusters film, and then two come along at the same time.

We already know Bridesmaids director Paul Feig is rebooting the franchise, with Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy leading a female-fronted cast.
But the director of the original movie has suggested it will only be the start of a whole new franchise.
Ivan Reitman has told Deadline.com that he wants to "expand the Ghostbusters universe".
According to him, that will include "different films, TV shows, merchandise... all things that are part of modern filmed entertainment".
Nothing is confirmed but Channing Tatum is one of the names rumoured to be up for a role.
Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboot is due out in 2016 with Saturday Night Live's Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon joining Wiig and McCarthy.
Now, Sony Pictures, along with Reitman and original star Dan Aykroyd, are thought to be setting up a Ghost Corps production company which would oversee the output.
Reitman suggests that the Russo Brothers, who directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, would direct what would then be a fourth Ghostbusters film.
The writer would be Drew Pearce, who wrote Iron Man 3 and Mission Impossible 5.
Quoted by film website Deadline, Reitman said: "Paul Feig's film will be the first version of that. He's got four of the funniest women in the world, and there will be other surprises to come.
"Drew (Pearce) will start writing and the hope is to be ready for the Russo Brothers' next window next summer to shoot, with the movie coming out the following year. It's just the beginning of what I hope will be a lot of wonderful movies."
If Ghostbusters does go down that route, then it would be similar to the way Marvel has set out a whole schedule of interconnecting films.
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Shrewsbury Town have extended the contract of midfielder Shaun Whalley.

The 29-year-old, who joined from Luton Town in June 2015, has signed a new two-year deal, having made 35 appearances this season.
He told the club website: "I wasn't interested in leaving to go anywhere else. I love the club.
"It's just a great place to be. I'm hoping we don't fight relegation like the last two seasons and have a good go at this (next) season."
Meanwhile, Shrewsbury manager Paul Hurst believes former Middlesbrough defender Bryn Morris has a bright future in the game.
The 21-year-old, who signed a short-term contract in January, has been offered a new deal by the club.
Hurst said: "He found it hard initially but he know what that's all about now. At the age he is at I feel he is one we can progress further and he can get better.
"I believe he can go on and have a good career. Whether that is here or not, I guess we will find out."


Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has told First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that she is about to make Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK.

2 February 2017 Last updated at 13:04 GMT
The accusation, made at FMQs, followed confirmation of a budget deal between the SNP-led Holyrood administration and the Scottish Greens.
It is likely to include a Â£6 a week rise for the top 10% income rate payers in Scotland.
Ms Davidson believed Ms Sturgeon needed to start listening to the country's business leaders whom she said were warning that higher taxes were not the way to economic prosperity.


Islamic State (IS) militants have released the last of more than 200 Assyrian Christians they kidnapped in north-eastern Syria a year ago.

Some 42 captives were freed on Monday morning, following mediation by the Assyrian Church, activists said.
One Assyrian group said IS had demanded an $18m (Â£13m) ransom.
Children, women and elderly people were among those seized when IS militants raided 12 villages along the Khabur river, near Tal Tamr, last February.
The assault prompted thousands of other Assyrians to flee their homes. Those abducted have been released in groups over the past 12 months.
The Sweden-based Assyrian Human Rights Network and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 42 captives, mostly women and children, were freed on Monday, while the Assyrian Federation of Sweden put the total at 43.
Younan Talia of the Assyrian Democratic Organisation told the Associated Press that IS had demanded a ransom of $18m for them, but that the figure was later lowered following negotiations.
An unnamed Syrian Christian figure separately told AP: "We paid large amounts of money, millions of dollars, but not $18m. We paid less than half the amount."
The fate of five Assyrians who went missing last year was still unknown, he added.
IS has a history of targeting religious minorities, and it has told Christians living in territory under its control to either convert to Islam, pay a special tax, or face death.
It is estimated that up to 40,000 Assyrians lived in Syria, alongside about 1.2 million members of other Christian denominations, before 2011, when the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began.


Edinburgh's two first-half tries were enough to beat a poor Scarlets at a wet and sparsely-attended Murrayfield.

Michael Allen and Magnus Bradbury produced the scores, both of them converted by Duncan Weir.
The stand-off added two penalties to cancel out two from Rhys Patchell to give Edinburgh a 20-6 interval lead.
An awful match - rugby and officiating - brought just three more points in the second half, Patchell making it 20-9 while Edinburgh were down to 14 men.
It was dour and, all too often, dire stuff. Edinburgh will be pleased with the win - and their defence - after their poor show against Cardiff last weekend. They are not exactly rocking, but at least they are up and running.
For Scarlets, worrying times. Two defeats in a row and a performance in Edinburgh that will have their supporters fretting.
It was 6-6 when Allen scored the first try, in the 34th minute.
Edinburgh had been ponderous in possession up to that point but when Weir executed a chip over the top inside the Scarlets 22, the visitors were sloppy in dealing with it.
Full-back Liam Williams attempted to dive on it while wing Steff Evans failed to cover as Allen got on the end of it and then touched down.
It was not clear if he applied downward pressure on the ball over the try-line, but the score was awarded nonetheless. Weir banged over the conversion from wide out to make it 13-6.
A minute before the break, Jake Ball, the Scarlets second-row, was sin-binned for taking a man in the air at a line-out and in quick order, Edinburgh scored again.
A terrible kicking miscue from Patchell inside his own 22 took a kindly ricochet off an Edinburgh shin and ended up in Bradbury's hands.
The number eight galloped to the line, Weir converted and Edinburgh had a 20-6 half-time lead.
The home team lost Bradbury to the sin-bin for a tip-tackle within a minute of the re-start and as soon as Bradbury returned, Phil Burleigh was binned for a ruck offence.
The visitors could only add three points from Patchell's boot while they had a one-man advantage, although were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty try late on when Allen high-tackled Evans into touch as the wing attempted to touch down.
Edinburgh: Glenn Bryce, Michael Allen, Sasa Tofilau, Phil Burleigh, Tom Brown, Duncan Weir, Nathan Fowles, Rory Sutherland, Ross Ford, WP Nel, Ben Toolis, Grant Gilchrist (capt), Jamie Ritchie, John Hardie, Magnus Bradbury.
Replacements: Stuart McInally, Allan Dell, Kevin Bryce, Fraser McKenzie, Hamish Watson, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Blair Kinghorn, Solomoni Rasolea
Scarlets: Liam Williams, Hadleigh Parkes, Jonathan Davies, Scott Williams, Steff Evans, Rhys Patchell, Aled Davies; Wyn Jones, Ken Owens (capt), Werner Kruger, Jake Ball, David Bulbring, Aaron Shingler, James Davies, John Barclay.
Replacements: Ryan Elias, Luke Garrett, Peter Edwards, Tadhg Beirne, Josh Macleod, Gareth Davies, Dan Jones, Aled Thomas.
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)
Attendance: 2,650


Former News of the World editor and government communications chief Andy Coulson has walked free from the High Court in Edinburgh after the perjury trial against him collapsed.

The case had twisted and turned across several weeks, with Lord Burns finally ruling that Mr Coulson had no case to answer on the charge brought by the Crown.
This was Scotland's first perjury trial for five years - the first since the Tommy Sheridan trial in 2010, which was where the allegations against Mr Coulson originated.
The 47-year-old was accused of committing perjury when he denied knowing about phone hacking at the paper prior to the arrest of his royal editor Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator, in August 2006.
But when it came down the issue which decided his trial, it didn't matter what Mr Coulson knew and when; it didn't even matter whether he had really broken his sworn oath to tell "the truth and nothing but the truth" or not.
It was the definition of perjury itself which saw the case thrown out.
The background to the trial stretched back almost 10 years, to a defamation action brought against Mr Coulson's News of the World paper by former Scottish Socialist politician Tommy Sheridan.
Mr Sheridan won Â£200,000 at the civil proceedings in 2006, but was later charged with lying under oath when he testified that he had not visited a Manchester swingers club - the subject of a series of stories in the Sunday red-top. He stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow, was convicted and was jailed.
Mr Coulson's perjury case hinged on evidence given by the former newspaper editor - then the director of communications for the Westminster government - when he was called as a witness during that trial and questioned about phone hacking.
No reference could be made in court to the fact Mr Coulson was jailed in 2014 for conspiracy to hack phones. The jury was was told to put any preconceptions out of their mind and key witnesses warned not to refer to previous proceedings.
One landmark feature of the case was that for the first time, the use of "live text based communications" was permitted from within a Scottish courtroom throughout a trial, allowing reporters to tweet live from the court.
This raised challenges of its own - the notoriously spotty signal coverage in court three being one; crafting legally safe, fair reporting within a scant 140 characters at a time being another.
However, the most vital exchanges of the trial took place without a jury present, as part of a legal submission by the defence - which could not be tweeted or reported until after the trial.
At the end of the day, the case rested on a combination of the legal definition of perjury and details of Tommy Sheridan's trial for that same offence.
In order to constitute perjury, false testimony has to be relevant to the case at hand; in essence, the lies told have to matter to the jury.
Thus, while the prosecution set out to prove that Mr Coulson had known about phone hacking at his paper far earlier than he had claimed under oath, the defence simply set out to prove that it didn't matter either way.
And in this regard, it seemed the defence team had stolen a march.
The onus is on the Crown to prove the relevance of the supposedly false evidence, Murdo MacLeod QC told Lord Burns. In his submission, the prosecution had done no such thing.
They could have called the Advocate Depute from the 2010 trial; they could even have called Mr Sheridan himself, he suggested.
They had not.
All they had done was hear extracts from Mr Coulson's testimony, before moving on to hear details about phone hacking from a trio of former News of the World journalists, all convicted phone hackers themselves.
With the jury out of the room as the no case to answer submission was heard - they were told a "legal matter" was being debated - the present Advocate Depute, Richard Goddard, hit back.
He argued that Mr Coulson's evidence had in fact been relevant to the case; perhaps not all of it, on the issue of phone hacking, but he had said enough of importance to the jury that any other lies he might tell could impact on his credibility.
How could the jury make a fair judgement based on Mr Coulson's testimony when he had given false evidence on other matters, Mr Goddard asked?
This was important because the Sheridan trial at the outset had little if anything to do with phone hacking. Mr Sheridan was on trial for perjuring himself during his successful defamation action against the News of the World.
But part-way through the 2010 trial, Mr Sheridan dismissed his legal team and went it alone, representing himself. He immediately called Mr Coulson, who had not originally been cited as a witness for the proceedings, to the stand.
Mr Sheridan wanted to make a number of points in his questioning of Mr Coulson. Firstly, he suggested that the so-called "McNeilage tape", a recording purporting to bear evidence of him admitting visiting the swingers club, had been fabricated by the News of the World.
The former politician also alleged that his phone had been hacked, and that the paper had been conspiring against him, to "do him in".
Mr Coulson denied all of this, stating that he had known nothing of phone hacking until the arrests of Goodman and Mulcaire in 2006 - thus forming the basis of the 2015 perjury action against him.
But crucially, even Mr Sheridan himself admitted during his closing speech that the questioning of Mr Coulson might be irrelevant to his own case.
He said: "There are other issues that have to be considered about conduct in public life, about power, about who can do things and who can break the law and get away with it.
"The reason I risked my defence to cite the likes of Glenn Mulcaire and Andy Coulson to give evidence wasn't because I thought they were going to help my defence, it was because I think I have a public service and a public duty to expose wrongdoing."
Such statements from Mr Sheridan and indeed the Advocate Depute from that case were enough for Mr MacLeod; he was able to point to them, alongside the lack of effort to prove relevance, as fatal flaws in the Crown case.
"All we have here, if I may say so without denigrating the Advocate Depute," he intoned, "is a rather desperate attempt to make a silk purse out of a pig's ear."
Debates on the matter of relevance and an additional point about corroboration dragged on for two days, after which the jury traipsed back into court three only to be sent out again less than a minute later as Lord Burns adjourned for the weekend to think things over.
When Lord Burns returned his written judgement on Monday, it was the death knell for the Crown case. He said he simply had not been given enough evidence by the Crown to judge whether Mr Coulson's testimony had been relevant, and as such whether it could constitute perjury.
Mr Coulson was acquitted, but this was suspended for 48 hours for the Crown to consider whether there was anything in the complex judgement which could be challenged at the Court of Criminal Appeal. But Mr Goddard could see no grounds to overturn the ruling; the game was up.
The jury of nine men and six women returned to the court to discover that they would not be passing judgement on Andy Coulson after all.
During the Crown case they had heard evidence from Clive Goodman, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup, all testifying that Mr Coulson had been aware of what Mr Weatherup called the "systematic culture of phone hacking at the News of the World".
But at the end of the day, the court ruled that whether that was true or not, it just didn't matter.
As Mr MacLeod underlined repeatedly in his legal submission, this trial had been about perjury, not phone hacking; and it was that which the Crown had failed to prove.
Questions will now be asked about how much the case cost, and why it came to court in the form it did in the first place.


If this article is of any interest to teenagers in Estonia or Latvia, it will only be to give them a chance to feel really smug - because their schools are already shut for the summer holidays.

They might be glancing at this on their mobiles on a beach somewhere, just to get a certain sense of satisfaction that they're not stuck reading something even duller in English lessons.
Schools in Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Ireland are also empty - and Bulgaria's primary schools have been closed since the end of May.
And don't feel too sorry for pupils in Italy and Hungary, because they are almost ready for their end-of-year goodbyes.
Instead reserve your sympathy for another group of European countries with many more weeks to tear off the calendar before escaping into the sun.
Liechtenstein keeps going into the first week of July, while classrooms in England and Wales are running a school-year marathon, staying open until the third week of July.
Source: Eurydice/ EU
But they are not the very last students in Europe to be stuck inside in summer. That honour is reserved for the Bavarians.
Germany has a six-week break staggered in different regions - and it means that pupils in Bavaria do not break up until the end of July, beginning a holiday that lasts until mid-September.
Unfortunately a late start to the holiday is usually no promise of a late return. Quite the opposite.
Those Latvian teenagers, already basking in their summer sojourn, stay off school for 13 weeks. The Italians are tucking into a big slice of the dolce vita with a 12 to 13 week break.
Those freewheeling Bulgarian primary school pupils are going to be out of the classroom until mid-September.
The Finns have 10 to 11 weeks off in the summer, Iceland, Portugal, Spain and Ireland have 12 weeks, Norway and Poland about eight weeks.
The length of a summer holiday seems to defy any clear geographical or cultural pattern. It's not a case of the southern European countries taking the academic equivalent of a siesta.
There are even big differences within countries. Parts of Switzerland have the shortest holidays, five weeks, while other parts have 10 weeks.
Within the UK, there are different patterns. While England and Wales keep studying deep into July, schools in Scotland have emptied by late June to return in mid-August and in Northern Ireland they finish at the beginning of July for a two-month break.
It's more about tradition and what's come to be expected.
And it's not all about a legacy of an agricultural past. There have been longstanding challenges to the idea that summer holidays were created to allow children to help with the harvest.
Many 19th Century state school systems were driven by the demands of an urban population, rather than rural. In the United States pressure for a longer summer break came from middle-class families wanting to get out of the unhealthy, overheated cities.
Another theory is that the school holidays followed the pattern of other institutions, such as universities, law courts and private schools.
But is there any connection between the length of the summer holiday and achievement in school?
The evidence once again is inconsistent. Liechtenstein, with only a modest six-week summer break, has the highest maths results in Europe, according to the international Pisa tests run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
But the best in Europe at reading are youngsters in Finland and Ireland, who have some of the longest summer holidays. Perhaps they spend the time reading. Finnish schools are away from the beginning of June until mid-August and it's even longer in Ireland, where they are on holiday until September.
If pupils are meant to forget everything they've learned over a long summer, then someone has forgotten to tell that to the Estonians, who combine a very long holiday with being among the most successful in both maths and reading tests.
And if long holidays were such a bad thing, why is it that high-achieving private schools often have more weeks off than their state school neighbours?
The OECD has its  own rather nuanced conclusion. It says there is "some relationship between the time students spend learning in and after school and their performance". But looking across a range of countries and education systems there is "no clear pattern".
It means that spending more time in school might help, but again it might not help that much. The quality of teaching and learning is going to be much more important than the quantity.
Of course it's more complicated than counting the weeks off in the summer. There are other holidays during the school year and the length of the school day can vary.
As a more precise measure, the OECD makes comparisons about the average number of lessons in key subjects each year.
In this global ranking, the countries where pupils get the most lessons are Chile, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Portugal and Singapore.
Again there is no clear link to how well pupils perform in the Pisa tests. Canada and Singapore have lots of lessons and are high achievers - but Portugal, with the most lessons in Europe, does not make the top 30.
Shanghai, the Chinese city which has topped the Pisa rankings, is in ninth place in terms of the volume of lessons, behind countries such as Tunisia and Peru. But where Shanghai really stands out - far above anyone apart from Singapore - is the amount of homework set by teachers.
The UK is ranked 23rd in terms of the amount of lessons each year - exactly the same place as its ranking in the maths test results.
On this global scale, the UK is above average in terms of the number of lessons per pupil each year, while France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Finland and Poland are all below average.
Whether it counts as first place or last place - they're on holiday so they probably won't care - Bulgaria has the lowest number of lessons each year.


A woman has been taken to hospital with suspected spinal injuries following a one-vehicle crash in the Borders.

Fire crews called to the scene had to remove the roof of the woman's car to free her.
The incident happened at 14:00 on the A6105 just outside Duns.
The woman, who has not been named, also suffered injuries to her arms and legs.


An online app which matches voters with the political party closest to their views has been launched ahead of the assembly elections.

WalesVote16.com asks users questions and ranks the parties by how closely their policies match the answers.
Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre created it in the run up to the 5 May vote.
Prof Roger Scully, of the centre, said it would be a "fun way" for people to see where they stood.
He said it was "strictly an academic project" and "not affiliated with any political party or movement".
Prof Scully told BBC Radio Wales' Good Morning programme: "We're absolutely not telling people how to vote, that's not our job.
"But we are trying to help people maybe see how they stand in relation to the parties overall."


The mother of a girl shot dead by her father says she would not have had a relationship with him if she had known he had a history of domestic violence.

Lyndsey Shipstone left her husband, Yasser Alromisse, to start a new life with their seven-year-old daughter, Mary, in Northiam, East Sussex.
But he tracked them down to their safe house last year and shot Mary twice in the head before taking his own life.
Ms Shipstone said more should be done to protect victims of domestic abuse.
She told BBC South East Today she had not known of her husband's history before the tragic events of 11 September last year.
"I would have liked to have known that he had been previously abusive to other partners... I like to think if he had been stopped sooner things might have been different," she said.
The results of a serious case review into the events surrounding the fatal shooting of Mary are expected to be released at the end of the year.
It is being carried out by East Sussex Local Safeguarding Children Board to find out whether mistakes were made, and what lessons can be learned.
Ms Shipstone said it was not clear how her estranged husband had found out where she and Mary were living.
They had been moved to Northiam for their own safety after she had been the victim of domestic violence at the hands of Alromisse.
"Information about us wasn't joined up and left us vulnerable," she said.
Ms Shipstone said she would like to see the authorities change their approach to the crime, and to give greater protection to victims.
"We still have this mentality that if you relocate a victim, then everything's going to be fine, and that's not true.
"Actually you're more at risk when you leave a perpetrator then actually when you're living with them.
"So we were always at risk from him - it was just trying to get other people to see that."
Ms Shipstone, who is expecting a baby in November with her fiance, Jason, said she was still taking one day at a time as the first anniversary of Mary's death approached.
"She'll live in my heart until the day I die, and even though the pain of losing her every day is unbearable, I still feel incredibly close to her.
"I love to remember her every day. So that keeps me going," she said.


Police are searching for the driver of a car that smashed into a shop and burst into flames in north-west London.

Residents were evacuated from surrounding buildings after the vehicle crashed into the mid-terrace shop on Station Road, Harrow at 03:30 BST.
Police said they had searched local hospitals to find the driver and a passenger who are believed to have fled the scene.
The shop and car were destroyed in the blaze but nobody was reported injured.
Eight fire engines and 58 firefighters took nearly three hours to put out the blaze, which also damaged offices on the first floor of the building.
Station Road has been closed for police to investigate the crash. No arrests have yet been made.


Rangers have moved to within two wins of winning the Scottish Championship title while Dunfermline have secured promotion by winning League One.

Click on the links below for Saturday's Scottish match reports.
Scottish Championship
Alloa Athletic 0-1 St Mirren
Falkirk 1-2 Livingston
Greenock Morton 0-1 Raith Rovers
Rangers 4-3 Queen of the South
Scottish League One
Airdrieonians 1-1 Albion Rovers
Ayr United 2-1 Stranraer
Dunfermline Athletic 3-1 Brechin City
Peterhead 0-1 Cowdenbeath
Stenhousemuir 2-1 Forfar Athletic
Scottish League Two
Berwick Rangers 2-0 Elgin City
Clyde 1-2 Arbroath
East Fife 1-1 Queen's Park
Montrose 0-5 Annan Athletic
Stirling Albion 3-0 East Stirlingshire


Great Britain's Jessica Ennis-Hill is in gold-medal position, with compatriot Katarina Johnson-Thompson fourth, after a see-saw first day of the heptathlon at the Olympic Games in Rio.

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After four of the seven events, defending champion Ennis-Hill, 30, leads by 72 points from young Belgian Nafi Thiam, with Barbados's Akela Jones a further 21 points back.
Johnson-Thompson, 23, had led going into the evening session, only for a disastrous shot put of 11.68m to drop her back.
Thiam's emergence adds a new dimension to the battle that began as a showdown between the two Britons, with world silver medallist Brianne Thiesen Eaton down in sixth, 186 points off the lead.
Four years ago, Ennis-Hill was 184 points ahead going into the second day, while at the World Championships a year ago she held an overnight lead of 80 over Johnson-Thompson.
Here in the Estadio Olimpico she moved back into first place with a time of 23.49 seconds in the day's final event, the 200m.
It leaves her in promising shape as she looks to retain the title she won in such memorable style in London four years ago.
"It's been a mixed day. l was really happy with my hurdles and high jump. I was obviously disappointed with my shot put - that was frustrating," she said.
"I was a bit down on the 200m but generally happy.
"I need to rest up and come back strong tomorrow. I'm trying to enjoy it but it's very stressful."
Johnson-Thompson will expect to eat into Ennis-Hill's advantage in the long jump, Saturday's first event at 15:45 BST, but Ennis-Hill has historically had the better javelin.
The Britons are evenly matched over the 800m, while Thiam is expected to drop back in that final event.
Ennis-Hill had run 12.84 seconds in winning her 100m hurdles heat to give herself an early edge and then cleared 1.89m in the high jump.
That was her best height since the 2012 Olympic trials, and meant she had made her highest scoring start to a heptathlon since she gave birth to son Reggie two years ago.
But Johnson-Thompson then went clear at a new British record of 1.98m, having clocked 13.48 in the hurdles, to storm into the lead.
And when Thiam also cleared 1.98m - a height no heptathlete has ever matched - that put the 21-year-old Belgian into second.
Johnson-Thompson went into the evening session on 2,264 points, an advantage of 12 over Thiam and 22 on Ennis-Hill, only for that sub-standard shot to drop her back to sixth.
The event has always been a weakness, but this was a metre and a half down on her personal best, and Thiam's third-round 14.91m pushed her briefly into top spot, Ennis-Hill's 13.86 enough for second overall.
But Thiam is a better jumper and thrower than runner, and 25.10 for third in the first 200m heat cost her as she chases her first major international medal.
"I was thrilled with my high jump. After the 200m I'm a bit down," said Johnson-Thompson.
"The 200m is one of my strongest events and I really wanted to drop under 23 seconds.
"They keep you out in the cold a long time but that's no excuse, it's the same for everyone but maybe that's why the times are down."
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In the 800m, Britain's Michael Rimmer, at his third Olympics yet seeking to make his first final, qualified well from a heat containing reigning champion and world record holder David Rudisha.
There was disappointment for team-mate Elliot Giles, seventh in the fourth heat, but both Laura Muir and Laura Weightman are into the semi-finals of the 1500m.
Matt Hudson-Smith qualified comfortably from his 400m heat yet there was no progression for Martyn Rooney, left distraught by a poor run for fifth in the fourth heat in 45.60 seconds.
"That was awful. It was embarrassing. You need to be confident but maybe I was just too cocky," he said.
Sophie Hitchon is into the hammer final after an impressive 70.37m in qualifying, while Desiree Henry and Asha Philip are safely into the next round of the 100m though 19-year-old Daryll Neita finished just outside the fastest loser spots.
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Police in Spain say they have found the body of an American woman who went missing on the Camino de Santiago pilgrim trail.

Denise Pikka Thiem disappeared while walking along the route in northern Spain in April.
A police search resumed in Leon province on Thursday, and a body was found a day later.
Police told Reuters that a 39-year-old Spanish man, who lives near where the body was discovered, has been arrested.
Ms Thiem, who was 40 when she disappeared and would have turned 41 in August, last sent a message to a friend on 4 April.
She said she was near the town of Astorga, some 250km (155 miles) from the end of the trail in Santiago de Compostela.
Earlier this week, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy wrote to her parents in Phoenix, Arizona, saying he "understands the pain of a family that does not know where their daughter is".
The route is very popular with pilgrims, with at least 215,880 reaching Santiago, city officials say (in Spanish).


A man who admitted trying to kill a woman by attacking her with wooden table legs has been jailed for 10 years.

Robert Carr, 39, from Glenrothes in Fife, also throttled the 20-year-old woman during the attack at a house in Lochgelly on Christmas Day 2015.
A court heard that the victim was found crouched behind a car, covered in blood and shaking.
After the attack, Carr sent her a message saying he loved her.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the father-of-10 later sent her a message asking why she had called the police and sent her mother a Facebook message asking if his victim was OK as he had "just not heard from her".
The woman was taken to hospital where her head wounds were stitched and stapled. Doctors noted that rectangular marks on her back and shoulder blades were consistent with her being hit with a table leg.
She had 19 separate injuries.
The attempted murder followed a string of violent offences Carr had inflicted on women. He pled guilty to 10 charges in total.
He has previously served 17 sentences of detention and imprisonment for charges including assault.
In relation to the Lochgelly attack, the court heard that Carr had been drinking at his victim's home on Christmas Eve and fell asleep.
The next morning he began slapping and punching her and calling her names.
Advocate depute Ian Wallace said: "He then picked up a wooden table, turned it upside down and ripped the legs off it. He took a table leg in each hand and repeatedly struck her on the head with them."
The woman tried to get up but Carr grabbed her by the throat and squeezed, pinning her against a wall. The woman was struggling for breath before he released her.
Carr resumed his attack with the table legs and she curled up in a ball to protect herself. He then kicked her full force in the stomach and began beating her on the back with the makeshift weapons.
He left the room but returned and punched her in the face before striking her again on the head with a table leg.
When he went to the toilet, the woman fled from the flat and hid behind a car. Passers-by contacted the emergency services.
Police found table legs stained with the victim's blood at her home.
Mr Wallace said that Carr later sent the woman a message telling her: "Am home love u."
Carr pled guilty to a further nine assault charges committed between 2003 and 2015 at addresses in Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy, Lochgelly and the former T in the Park campsite at Balado, Kinross, against female victims, two of whom were pregnant during some of the incidents.
He had also originally faced rape charges, but those allegations were either deleted or his not guilty pleas accepted.
The court heard that one victim said she still did not feel safe and another said she was terrified of Carr and feared that he would kill her.
Carr told one woman, now 46, that he would "shut her up permanently" after she rejected money he wanted to give her as a birthday present.
He punched her in the face and striking her with a thick church candle until she passed out.
On another occasion, the victim was at a party where children were present when Carr turned up uninvited.
He closed the curtains and brought out a small case containing a gas-propelled pellet gun. After putting the weapon together he shot the woman hosting the party in the hand.
He then turned on his previous assault victim and shot her in the head and shoulder. She lunged at him to try and stop him and he shot her in the head again. The woman said Carr was shouting at her for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan "Young, Free and Single".
The woman fled from the house with her baby as Carr followed and continued to shoot at her.
She later had a pellet removed from her head and another from her shoulder, but a third pellet in her shoulder could not be extracted.
Defence solicitor advocate Krista Johnston said the offences were "awful". She added: "He feels deep shame about his behaviour."
Judge Lord Ericht told Carr: "You pled guilty to 10 charges comprising a series of offences involving a sustained and violent course of conduct against women culminating in attempted murder."
Lord Ericht told him that he had to take account of the serious nature of the assaults and ordered that he be kept under supervision for a further three-year period after being released from prison.


Dozens of sheep worth thousands of pounds in total have been stolen from fields on a farm in southern Scotland.

About 40 Texel hogs with either a red or orange shoulder and white faces were taken from the land at Awhirk near Stranraer.
The sheep - estimated to be worth Â£3,000 - are thought to have been taken between 30 September and 25 October.
PC Elinor Sneddon asked for anyone with information about the incident to contact police.
"We want to hear from anyone who may have seen anything suspicious in the area around the B7042 road between Portpatrick and Sandhead over this period, or indeed any other rural location in the Stranraer area," she said.
"A vehicle must have been used and we are keen to hear about any suspicious vehicle movements over this time."


A fact-finding mission by chemical weapons watchdog the OPCW has concluded that the banned nerve agent Sarin was used in an attack in northern Syria in April that killed dozens of people.

A UN panel will now try to determine if the Syrian government was responsible, as the US has alleged.
The attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province was the most deadly in Syria in more than three years.
It prompted a retaliatory US missile strike against a Syrian air base.
The fact-finding mission for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is based in The Hague, concluded that, after interviewing witnesses and examining samples, "a large number of people, some of whom died, were exposed to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance".
"It is the conclusion of the FFM (fact-finding mission) that such a release can only be determined as the use of Sarin, as a chemical weapon," a summary said.
The new report has been circulated among OPCW members but has not been made public.
A joint UN and OPCW investigation will now investigate who was to blame for the attack.
US President Donald Trump ordered a cruise missile strike on Shayrat air base after US officials concluded that the facility was where a Syrian Air Force jet had been armed with a Sarin-filled bomb.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has previously said that the incident was fabricated.


Salisbury City has been placed in administration at the High Court after an application through creditors was granted by Mr Justice Birss.

Owner Outail Touzar was not present, and BBC Wiltshire understands the petition was lodged by LED Synergy.
LED Synergy are creditors and owner Jeremy Harewood is part of a consortium bidding to take control of the club.
The two parties had been at the High Court on 4 September regarding the ownership, but the case was adjourned.
"This is a group of business people who have tried everything in their power to regain control of the football club," consortium head Paul Smith told BBC Wiltshire.
"We didn't feel we were going anywhere, there was enormous pressure from certain creditors, companies that were threatening to wind the club up.
"We took the decision collectively in co-operating with a number of creditors to take action and take it to the High Court. We feel it was in the best interests of the football club."
It has been a difficult four months for Salisbury since Touzar and Mark Winter took ownership, as the latter went on to take legal action to overturn the Moroccan's 98% stake ownership.
On the field the club has been thrown out of the Football Conference and are currently without membership of any division.


A man accused of killing four soldiers in the 1982 IRA Hyde Park bombing will not be prosecuted because he was given a guarantee he would not face trial.

It follows a judge's ruling that an official assurance given in error meant John Downey - who had denied murder - could not be prosecuted.
It may affect 186 people wanted for terror-related offences in the Troubles who received similar assurances.
Victims' families said they felt "devastatingly let down".
Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Matt Baggott said the PSNI accepted the court's decision and full responsibility for the failures which resulted in this outcome.
He said the matter would be referred to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.
"I wish to apologise to the families of the victims and survivors of the Hyde Park atrocity," he said.
"I deeply regret these failings which should not have happened. We are currently carrying out a check of these cases to ensure the accuracy of information processed by the PSNI."
The public interest in making state officials keep their promises outweighed the public interest in a trial being held, Mr Justice Sweeney had ruled on 21 February.
The Crown Prosecution Service has now said it does not wish to appeal against the judge's ruling, allowing reporting of the case to go ahead.
Sue Hemming, head of special crime and counter terrorism at the CPS, said it "respected" the decision of the court.
"The legal issues in this extremely serious case were complex and it was appropriate that they should be fully argued before the court for a judge to rule upon," she said.
The Hyde Park attack killed Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, Lieutenant Anthony Daly, Trooper Simon Tipper and Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young on 20 July 1982.
Mr Downey, 62, who was convicted of IRA membership in the 1970s, had denied murdering the soldiers and conspiring to cause an explosion.
He became Scotland Yard's prime suspect for the Hyde Park attack - but he was never extradited from the Republic of Ireland. He was described in court as a committed supporter of the Northern Ireland peace process.
In May 2013 he was arrested at Gatwick Airport while en route to Greece and charged with the murders and bomb attack. Mr Downey had travelled to the UK on four previous occasions since 2010.
But over the course of legal argument, he asked the Old Bailey to halt the prosecution - saying he had received a clear written assurance from the government that he would not be tried.
He cited an official letter he had received in 2007 saying: "There are no warrants in existence, nor are you wanted in Northern Ireland for arrest, questioning or charging by police. The Police Service of Northern Ireland are not aware of any interest in you by any other police force."
He said his alleged offences had been categorised as one of the "on-the-run" cases that would no longer be pursued in the light of progress in the peace process.
In his judgement halting the case, Mr Justice Sweeney said Mr Downey had received an assurance in 2007 that he would not face criminal charges, despite the fact that police in Northern Ireland knew he was still wanted by Scotland Yard.
Although police soon realised they had made a mistake, the assurance was never withdrawn.
The Crown Prosecution Service had argued that the assurance was given in error - but the judge said it amounted to a "catastrophic failure" that misled the defendant. A trial would therefore be an abuse of executive power.
Responding to the decision, former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said: "I was astonished to hear that this prosecution had been launched in the first place, because he had received a letter from the Northern Ireland Office after painstaking investigations into whether the evidence still existed to prosecute him as a suspect for this crime and he received a letter saying he was in the clear.
"This was a critical part of the peace deal that has brought Northern Ireland from horror and evil to peace and hope and the idea that it could be unravelled in his case was astonishing to me."
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said Mr Downey's arrest had been in breach of the "on-the-runs" policy decided following the Good Friday Agreement.
"John Downey should never have been arrested and this has been vindicated by the court decision," Mr Adams said.
But Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member Tom Elliott said the news was an "appalling indictment of Peter Hain and the past Labour government in their behind-the-scenes dealings".
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson called the conclusion "an outrage and a dark day for justice".
He said Mr Downey had been handed "a get out of jail free card" and urged an appeal against the decision.
"Every conceivable avenue should be exhausted. Justice should not have a sell-by date," he said.
Families of those killed said in a joint statement that the judgement had left them feeling "great sadness and bitter disappointment".
The statement read: "This news has left us all feeling devastatingly let down, even more so when the monumental blunder behind this judgement lies at the feet of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The end result, it said, was that the "full chain of those terrible events" would never be put in the public domain for justice to be seen to be done.
They added: "With no sensible explanation from the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland],  this must surely now raise the question of whether there have been other errors in the issuing of other such letters.
"The families urge a thorough review of what remains of the administrative scheme to avoid a repeat of what has happened here."
The Hyde Park attack is one of the most significant unsolved IRA bombings of The Troubles. One other person was convicted in relation to the deaths before being later cleared on appeal.
The bomb that Mr Downey was accused of planting was the first of two that day in London and he was linked to the attack by fingerprints found on a parking ticket bought for the car used to transport the bomb.
In the second explosion, less than two hours later, seven Royal Green Jackets bandsmen in a Regent's Park bandstand were killed.


The head of the Welsh civil service has announced he will stand down from the role at the end of the year.

Permanent Secretary Sir Derek Jones has held the job since October 2012.
He emailed staff to say he would leave after ensuring that "a new first minister and cabinet hit the ground running".
The Welsh Government said arrangements for the appointment of a successor would be finalised "in due course".
In the email, Sir Derek said: "Although we'll continue to be busy, I hope the next few weeks will give us all the opportunity to find time for a bit of reflection on the huge amount that's been achieved and what we can do to prepare for the all-consuming early months of the new Assembly term."
He added: "But, before that begins, I wanted to let you know about my own personal plans, which are to step down from the role of Permanent Secretary at the end of the year.
"By that time we will have helped a new First Minister and Cabinet to hit the ground running and the new Programme for Government will be well under way.
"There will also be sufficient time for a competition to appoint my successor.
"You will hear more from me about all this in the coming months."


The appearance of woolly bollards in a Trossachs town has proved a major hit with visitors.

Nearly every bollard in Callander has been given a woolly makeover to mark the town's Winter Fest.
The most popular covers have been knitted in the style of Olaf the snowman, from Disney movie favourite Frozen.
They were created by women from the town's Meet and Make and Creative in Callander groups.
Among them was 52-year-old Deborah O'Hara.
She said the women, known as "yarn-bombers", had first knitted bollard covers as part of the town's Summer Fest and they had proven extremely popular.
"People just love them. Visitors to the town have been stopping to get photographs of them," she said.
"I have been watching them from the shop where I work. It's very funny to see people's faces.
"There has of course been the odd joke and innuendo about them, but mostly people just love them."
Visitors will be able to admire the covers from Thursday until Tuesday next week.


Northern Ireland's netball team have qualified for next year's Commonwealth Games in Australia.

The latest world rankings published on Tuesday saw Northern Ireland move up to 10th and inside the necessary top-12 position for Gold Coast qualification.
Victory in the recent Quad Series in Lisburn against Barbados, Singapore and the Republic of Ireland helped ensure Northern Ireland's qualification.
Scotland also squeezed in as 12th qualifiers as Trinidad missed out.
Qualification confirmation came as a great relief to the Northern Ireland players with captain Caroline O'Hanlon admitting they had had an "incredibly nervous wait".
"There was great euphoria after beating Barbados in the Quad Series final and at least we knew we'd done all we could by winning that tournament but nobody was counting chickens," said the Armagh woman.
"We weren't just sure how the maths would work out when everything was factored in so hearing we've made it is a massive relief and breaking into the top 10 is the icing on the cake.
"The Commonwealths are the pinnacle for any netballer and after such a memorable experience at Glasgow 2014 we're delighted to be heading to Gold Coast next April."


Cardiff City will return to playing in their home blue strip from Saturday.

Owner Vincent Tan gave the go-ahead during overnight boardroom discussions, after a decisive consultation meeting with supporters on Thursday.
The Malaysia-based businessman has also sanctioned a change of badge to give the Bluebird mascot more prominence.
The rebrand to red was controversially introduced by Tan in June 2012 after he bought the club, and the red shirt will remain as Cardiff's away kit.
The Football League has given its permission for Cardiff to change their playing strip mid-campaign and the players will wear blue shirts for Saturday's home Championship game against Fulham.
Tan's rebranding of the club, whose nickname is the Bluebirds, was undertaken to generate "appeal in international markets", but he has now been persuaded to reverse the decision.
Cardiff were on the verge of administration when Tan took over the Welsh club in May 2010 and survived three winding-up orders in the 2009-10 season over unpaid taxes.
An outstanding debt of £24m to main creditors Langston - whose spokesperson is former Cardiff City owner Sam Hammam - was settled in July 2013.
In January 2014, Cardiff City reported a loss of £30m for the 2012-13 season, when they were promoted to the Premier League, and the club's overall debt rose to £118m, with just over half - £66m - owed to Tan.
Cardiff were relegated back to the Championship after one season and currently sit 12th in the table.
Russell Slade's side return to league action against Fulham on Saturday following their FA Cup third-round win over Colchester United, notable for a record-low attendance of 4,194 for a football match at Cardiff City Stadium.
Slade has described the club's move back to blue as a "giant step" which will allow them to sustain future success.
"This is a fantastic opportunity to build a new platform and put the bricks in place to rebuild and start again," he said.
"If you're going to be successful in any business, any football club, you need everyone pulling together as a unit.
"My job is to focus purely on football and preparing the team for games., but if your football club is even slightly dysfunctional these things can have a detrimental effect.
"I believe this will be a giant step forward to go with the traditional blue.
"The owner and I have talked about the shirt and he was aware of the issue. He was not closing his eyes to it."
"If we can play in blue on Saturday I would expect it to be the best atmosphere I would have experienced here and probably, for some of the players, it would be the best they have experienced for a long time.
"We are always looking for momentum and this could be the spark to get us in the play-off places but it is down to the players as well as the fans."


Crystal Palace will support those affected by the Croydon tram crash "in any way we can", says boss Alan Pardew.

Seven people were killed when a tram derailed in south London on Wednesday, 9 November with 51 taken to hospital, eight of who were said to be suffering "serious or life-threatening" injuries.
Pardew said some of the victims' families would be at Palace's home game against Manchester City on Saturday.
"The terrible events in Croydon had a massive impact on us," he added.
Some Palace supporters were among those who lost their lives and Pardew said the club had contributed to a fund to help the victims of the incident and their families.
"We as a club made a contribution to the fund, of course," the 55-year-old said.
"We also lost a fan to a train accident a couple of weeks before. Just awful. As a club we have to show we are with them and do all we can."
The family of 19-year-old Dane Chinnery, who died in the crash, have asked Palace fans at the game against Manchester City on Saturday to join them in a minute's applause.
The club have also announced they will be holding a minute's silence prior to the game.
Pardew said: "It is such a difficult thing. How can we get across the emotion they are feeling, it is such a personal thing.
"We as a club are fully behind them and want to help them as best we can. We have an important role to help the fans."


Friends of an eight-year-old boy who was killed by a falling gravestone will not have to come to court to give evidence at a fatal accident inquiry.

Ciaran Williamson was playing in Glasgow's Craigton Cemetery when the stone fell on him on 26 May 2015.
A preliminary hearing was told there were recorded interviews with the children who were with Ciaran.
Transcripts of these will be presented to the inquiry, which is due to start at Glasgow Sheriff Court in November.
A final preliminary hearing was set for next month before the inquiry is due to start.


Witnesses have described the chaos and horror after a fatal explosion at the concert by US pop star Ariana Grande at Manchester Arena.

Twenty-two people were killed in the explosion, including an eight-year-old girl.
A further 59 people, including 12 under the age of 16, were injured and taken to hospital.
Nick Haywood, 46, from Nottingham was waiting for his 16-year-old daughter Caitlin and her friend, also 16, when the explosion happened.
He said: "You could feel it, you could feel the noise. It was incredibly loud. My first thought was to find my daughter.
"People were already starting to filter out. You could tell something was wrong, no-one was laughing or chatting. Some people were running, a bit of mild panic.
"I was trying to get hold of them on the phone but the network was down so I made my way into the arena. Seeing her on the stairs was a huge relief.
"It was like she was almost born again. It was the best moment of my life all over again."
Caitlin had planned and saved up for the trip for months.
She said: "We were so excited when the day came and we were listening to her music on the train. We were so excited, but it turned out to be be a bad experience.
"When people said [the noise] was a balloon or a speaker, in the back of my head I knew it was a bomb and we needed to get out.
"I thought the next minute people with guns were going to start coming in."
She said she and her friend were near the front of the stage when the blast took place and she said people were getting crushed as they panicked and ran for the exit.
"As soon as Ariana Grande left [the stage] the lights went out and the bomb went off. That made me think that this person planned it so well."
Stephanie Hill and her daughter Kennedy were at the concert. She said the police and emergency services entered the building soon after the blast, but she still didn't feel safe.
"The police were all there, there were armed police with... their guns, there were ambulances.
"They were there so quickly it was unbelievable. But we didn't know, even then we didn't know what was going on.
"We were thinking 'oh my God, we're going to get shot'.
"So we ran, we ran and we hid under a bridge for about forty minutes."
Kennedy said at first the arena was "scarily still for five or six seconds... then everybody just ran."
The Manchester community that rushed to help
Leah Cassidy, 16, from Radcliffe was at the concert with her friend.
"As the concert finished and we were nearing the tunnel to leave the auditorium, there was a huge bang that shook the whole ground. The whole auditorium went deadly quiet for five seconds and then the screaming began.
"The bomb went off near our tunnel. Because everyone started pushing back from the tunnel we were going to, my friend and I held hands and started to run to the opposite direction.
"As we were running, I saw smoke everywhere and shoes on the ground from people trying to flee. It was frantic.
"Then we got outside we saw a little girl and boy aged about eight or nine distraught as they couldn't find their dad. We stayed with them until he found us.
"I'll never forget the horrific feeling. It was a sad way to end the best night of my life."
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Rebecca Horrocks, 17, was there with a friend. They were heading to the exit when the explosion went off.
"The lights had just come up. We were about to leave through the exit and the explosion shook the floor and there was a bit of smoke coming through the exit.
"Everything was silent for a moment then people started screaming and running in the opposite direction and running out of the exit.
"We got caught up in the flood of people and left through the next exit. When we got in the foyer there were people's belongings all over the floor, shoes and bags. It was quite foggy.
"People were screaming and shouting people's names. We found a little boy and a little girl too, children who had been separated from their guardians and were terrified so we took them across the road and as we waited for their parents, we could hear the emergency services begin to arrive.
"We stayed with them for about 15 minutes so they could find their mum. Then we just ran until we met our parents and got home.
"We are so lucky to be alive and I'm so sorry I can't say the same for others."
Nicky Betteridge was also there with her daughter, Summer.
"All of a sudden there was a huge bang and then within seconds people behind me started screaming and running, running past us," she said.
"So I grabbed Summer and said 'run' and we started running with everybody else, there were hundreds of people running.
"We got to the stairs and everyone was pushing... trying to get down as quickly as we could.
"And then we ran outside onto the road and there were lots of people there, crying and shouting."
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Simon Allsopp and his wife Sarah were driving up the arena to collect their daughter and her friend when they heard the explosion.
"I said to my wife 'that was too loud'. We saw kids coming down the steps and I was able to drive to the bottom of the main steps [and] my wife jumped out of the car to find our daughter Charlotte and her friend Gemma.
"Kids were running down the steps, crying and screaming, hundreds and hundreds of kids, some running. Parents were stood opposite just in shock. Everyone was confused."
Mr Allsopp said it took him seven or eight minutes to drive away from the steps and pull up around the corner.
"Taxis were driving towards me beeping their horns, and police were on the scene instantly, right behind me.
"I wound my window down to try and hear what had happened. Everyone was on their phones, or crying. A mother and her young daughter came up to my car and knocked on my window. She asked 'have you seen my son?' I said 'I don't know, I don't know where my daughter is'.
He said his daughter called to say they had got out of the building and he then saw a "chain" of emergency vehicles coming through.
"We were reunited at about 23:15. The girls were crying when we met them. We just wanted to get out of the city and go home."
In pictures: Manchester blast aftermath
Gary Walker, from Leeds, and his wife were just metres from the explosion, waiting for their daughters to come out.
"We heard the last song go and then suddenly there was a massive flash and then a bang and smoke. I felt a pain in my foot and my leg.
"I turned around to my wife who was standing at the side of me and she said, 'I need to lay down.'
"She's got a stomach wound and possible a broken leg.
"I've got a bit of a hole in my foot where I've got a bit of shrapnel. I was surprised I got away so lightly."
His daughter Abigail, who was still in the auditorium with sister Sophie at the time of the explosion, said: "I had to make sure I had my sister. I grabbed hold of her and pulled hard. Everyone was running and crying.
"We were just trying to figure where everyone was. It was absolutely terrifying."
College student Sebastian Diaz, 19, from Newcastle, echoed other witnesses' descriptions of mass panic at the end of the concert.
"Ariana Grande had just finished her last song and there was a huge bang. I just saw running and it was just instinct to run," he said.
"We actually ended up in a corridor and it was a dead end. It was terrifying.
"I found the main doors and people were crying everywhere. Back at the hotel people were crying and on their phones."


Three South African football officials have been banned by Fifa following an investigation into international friendlies prior to the 2010 World Cup.

Leslie Sedibe, former South African Football Association chief executive, has been banned from football-related activities for five years.
He has also been fined Swiss Francs 20,000 (£14,100).
Two former Safa referees' chiefs, Steve Goddard and Adeel Carelse, have each received two-year bans.
The sanctions relate to the proceedings against Lindile Kika, who last October was banned from all football-related activity for six years. Kika denied being involved in match-fixing.
Fifa found the officials guilty of infringements of its code of ethics relating to general rules of conduct, loyalty and duty of disclosure.
All bans come into force immediately.
The South African FA said it welcomed the sanctions.
"We are glad this matter has ultimately reached this stage since Safa reported the matter to Fifa almost four years ago," said Poobalan Govindasamy, chairman of the Safa ethics committee.
"It had dragged on too long for our liking and was starting to have an impact on us as an association and our valued stakeholders.
"At Safa we have a zero-tolerance policy for any corrupt activity which impacts negatively on this beautiful game and for that reason we welcome strong measures against any individual who is found guilty of such offenses."