Tributes have flooded in after the death of former ITN newsreader Carol Barnes.

Barnes, who was a familiar face on television screens for 30 years, died in hospital yesterday after reportedly suffering a stroke a week earlier.Her son James paid an emotional tribute, saying he would be forever indebted to her. "My mum was a beautiful, kind and delicate person - a person loved by many and whom I am desperately proud to call my mother," he said.

Tributes from colleagues in the media poured in after the 63-year-old's death at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, describing the journalist as "one of the foremost broadcasters of her generation" and "friends with everybody".

Barnes began her working life as a teacher, before joining ITN as a reporter in 1976 and going on to anchor all the broadcaster's main news programmes, including the flagship News at Ten bulletin for a number of years. ITV news presenter Alastair Stewart, a close friend for many years, spoke for all her former colleagues when he said: "Barnesy was a rare creature - as capable on location as she was in the studio. Her public face was that of the polished professional. Privately she was just a lovely, generous and delightful person.

Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan said Barnes was "one of the foremost broadcasters of her generation".

He said Barnes took him under her wing when he started at ITN in the late 1980s and he would remember her with great affection and respect.

Former ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis said: "She was friends with us, she was friends with the viewers, she was friends with everybody."