The eyes of the world were on Helston this evening with the arrival of the Olympic Flame in the UK.

The special British Airways flight BA2012, a gold-liveried plane named The Firefly, touched down at RNAS Culdrose at 7.25pm carrying onboard footballer David Beckham, Princess Anne, London’s mayor Boris Johnson and Falmouth’s former MP Lord Sebastian Coe.

First out of the plane was 15-year-old Helston Community College schoolgirl Georgia Higgs – selected because she was returning home with the flame.

Georgia, who had flown from Athens with the flame and its high profile attendants, told the Packet: “The flight was incredible. It was just a complete honour, which I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”

Football superstar and Olympic ambassador David Beckham had the honour of lighting the Olympic Torch from a flame carried in a Davy lamp – a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres invented by Penzance’s Sir Humphry Davy.

The Olympic cauldron was then lit, in front of the watching world.

The event was broadcast live on the One Show, with presenters Chris Evans and Alex Jones chatting with an audience of more than 500 invited guests, including schoolchildren from 21 schools in the county.

Following the ceremony, Beckham spent almost 40 minutes signing autographs for excited schoolchildren.

The Olympic Flame is now being kept at RNAS Culdrose overnight, under its only security, before being flown by helicopter to Land’s End by 771 squadron early tomorrow morning for the start of the Olympic Torch Relay at 7.08am.