A new £75 million crime-fighting centre tasked with targeting serious organised criminals has been officially opened by the Princess Royal.

The Scottish Crime Campus at Gartcosh, North Lanarkshire, brings together 1,100 people from five organisations such as police, prosecutors and customs officials to share intelligence.

Located on the site of a former steelworks, its facilities, which include a state-of-the-art forensic laboratory, are spread across four floors.

Princess Anne formally opened the base today after it started operating earlier this year.

Sir Stephen House, Police Scotland Chief Constable, said: "Serious organised crime seeks to undermine the safety of all of our communities.

"Today's opening by HRH The Princess Royal is another important milestone in our work with partners at the Scottish Crime Campus which now allows Police Scotland to enhance significantly our approach to how we target those who engage in this type of insidious activity.

"We are becoming increasingly sophisticated and successful at targeting serious organised crime and other threats. The Scottish Crime Campus is a key part of our efforts collectively to help keep communities safe through ensuring the best intelligence feeds excellent evidence-gathering which in turns results in operations which puts serious organised criminals out of business."

The five organisations under its roof are Police Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the National Crime Agency, HM Revenue and Customs and Forensic Services.