Former President George HW Bush has marked his 85th birthday with a tandem parachute jump near his home in Maine.

He told reporters that he jumped for two reasons: to experience the exhilaration of free-falling and to show that the elderly can remain active and do fun things.

He also said he enjoyed it so much that he planned to do it again when he turned 90.

This was Mr Bush's seventh parachute jump - his first came when his plane was shot down over the Pacific in 1944 during World War II.