A SPECIALIST who is searching for a rogue gene which may cause heart attacks is to carry out additional studies to discover whether a Norwegian Viking gene is responsible.

Professor Alistair Hall, joint leader of the world's biggest genetic survey of heart disease, has been inspired by the recent BBC documentary series Blood Of The Vikings.

Prof Hall claims there is increasing evidence that the high rate of heart disease deaths in the North-East and elsewhere in the UK may be due to our Norwegian ancestry.

He came to this conclusion after matching patterns of heart disease with evidence of Norwegian Viking settlements.

The Norwegians have higher heart disease rates than their Danish neighbours and that is reflected by modern heart disease maps of Britain.

"The map of UK heart attack prevalence strongly coincides with archeological evidence of settlements of Norwegian Vikings," said Prof Hall, who recently toured the North-East recruiting families who have been affected by early heart disease.

Prof Hall matched a new heart disease map with evidence collected by the documentary team that showed many of the people living where the Norwegian Vikings settled are their direct descendents.

The Office of National Statistics map identifies the North-East as one of the areas where male deaths from heart attacks are particularly high.

Professor Hall said: "It is clear that the areas where the genetically distinct Norwegian Vikings settled and traded have the highest rate of early heart attack deaths among men compared to the parts of the country invaded by the genetically similar Danish Vikings."

Famously, the first recorded incidence of a Norwegian Viking attack was at Lindisfarne off the Northumberland coast in 793 AD

Last year Prof Hall toured the UK collecting information from families who have suffered heart attacks before reaching retirement age.

The am of the project is to set up a gene library which would map genes across family groups. Scientists may be able to identify genes which contribute to heart disease and devise ways of reducing death rates.

Prof Hall now intends to widen the study to try to detect whether a Norwegian Viking gene is responsible.

The team, which is sponsored by the British Heart Foundation, still needs another 200 families.

Anyone from a family where at least two brothers or sisters have had heart attacks before the age of 65 should ring 0800 052 7154.