Emotional workers broke down in tears as the last generator at Longannet Power Station was switched off.

The last of the Fife plant’s four generators was turned off at noon on Thursday, marking the end of nearly 50 years of production at the site.

The shutdown also brings a century of coal-fired power production in Scotland to a close.

CCR controller Bobby Smart pressed the button to officially switch off the station, which had 270 employees.

Mr Smart told onlookers, some of whom were in tears: "Longannet no more."

During its lifetime, more than 177 million tonnes of coal was used along with 2.7 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 2.4 million cubic metres of natural gas.

More than 60 billion cubic metres of cooling water from the Forth Estuary has also passed through the station.

Environmental groups have hailing the closure as as the "single biggest reduction in Scotland's climate change emissions ever".

Longannet was the largest power station in Europe when it went online, capable of producing 2400MW of electricity for the national grid and powering over two million homes each year.

After Scottish Power announced it was closing the station last August, the Longannet Task Force was set up by the Scottish Government, local authorities and partner agencies to help mitigate the impact.

As well as the 270 employees, more jobs in the supply chain will be impacted by the closure.

Concerns were raised about regeneration plans last week after the Scottish Government announced that it would not be able to give dedicated funding to the task force.