BBC News Online were winners in four categories at the European Online Journalism awards on Thursday.

The site shared overall honours with Guardian Unlimited, the web service of the Guardian newspaper.

The BBC's News Online team won in the Best News Story Broken on the Net, with an exclusive account by the site's science editor, Dr David Whitehouse.

He reported how scientists had confirmed that the first genetically altered humans had been born and were healthy.

Also at the awards ceremony at the Mermaid Theatre in London, BBC News Online won the Best General News Presentation award for The Life of Crime special series of reports, published early in 2001.

Another special report - The Human Code Crackers - won the Science Reporting award and BBC News Online also won in the Business and Economics category with a report on how bookies were braced for record takings on the Grand National.

Team effort

Commenting on BBC News Online's continued success at these awards - now in their third year - Mike Smartt, Editor-in-Chief of BBC News New Media, said the four prizes were another tribute to the hard work of a team dedicated to the best of journalism on the internet.

Best Overall Journalism Service was Oslopuls, the online listings magazine of Aftenposten, the leading Norwegian daily.

Guardian Unlimited won in the Best News Story, Best Investigative Reporting, Best Use of Mobile Connectivity, and Travel Reporting categories.

Dave Green, the editor of Need to Know, the UK webzine, was voted European Online Journalist of the year.

BBC News Online has netted a string of honours in its three and a half year lifetime.

These include all three interactive Bafta awards so far, five previous NetMedia (now European Online Journalism awards), the British Press Award, the Prix Italia and The Net magazine award as the world's best news site.