Liverpool giants: Sea Odyssey Titanic event ends

Three giant marionettes have left Liverpool by boat at the end of a street theatre event in the city.

The giants, a little girl, her pet dog and uncle, concluded their 23-mile journey around the city by stepping onto a barge at Canning Dock.

An estimated 600,000 people watched the three-day event, named Sea Odyssey and staged by Royal de Luxe.

The French company's artistic director Jean Luc Courcoult celebrated its conclusion by jumping into the Mersey.

The production was staged to mark the centenary of the Titanic disaster.

The 30ft (9m) girl and 50ft (15m) man had been travelling separately around the city since Friday before they met at King's Dock on Saturday evening.

The giant man leapt over Liverpool's 44ft (13.5m) Chinese arch, the largest outside mainland China.

Ch Insp Martin Woosey, who has been walking along with the giants, said: "It's definitely one of the most memorable things I've seen walking along Liverpool's roads.

"It's so unusual to see in Britain, there aren't many times you get to see something of this scale.

"It's drawn people from all over the country to come and have a look."

The event was inspired by a letter written by a young girl to her father who worked as a steward on the Titanic, which was registered in Liverpool.

William McMurray did not survive the sinking and never saw the letter from his 10-year-old daughter May, which arrived after the ship had sailed.

Sea Odyssey shows the girl, called Little Girl Giant, walking around Liverpool on a quest to learn news of her father from her uncle who has dived to the wreck of the ship.

The giant marionettes are made from poplar, lime wood and steel.

Their eyes are made from street lights and their hair from horse hair.

The dog puppet, called Xolo, is made from steel and papier mache.

A team of 110 puppeteers and crane operators control the giants.

Sea Odyssey is the final event to use European legacy funding from the Liverpool Capital of Culture year in 2008.

A special TV documentary - Liverpool's Titanic Girl - is shown on BBC One, Monday 30 April at 20:30 BST