GLASGOW Science Centre has had its busiest year since it opened in 2001.

The Clydeside attraction bucked nationwide trends to see more than 270,000 people go through its doors during the last financial year, a rise of 7%.

Delighted bosses believe their new exhibition, BodyWorks – which includes Britain's only virtual autopsy table – is helping drive interest.

The centre, built as Glasgow's big Millennium project, has historically recorded substantial operating deficits despite, unlike other major Glasgow attractions, charging visitors.

And its totemic Glasgow Tower remains shut after years of technical problems.

However, its success from April 2012 to last month way outstrips the industry average, reported by the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions to be up just 1.5%.

Glasgow Science Centre also reported numbers up 10% in the summer of 2012 – July and August – when nearly three-quarters of competitors were seeing a decline.

Chief Executive Dr Stephen Breslin, who took the lead at the centre a year ago, said: "This boost in visitor numbers is a great recognition of all the hard work that we have undertaken in the last 12 months at the centre.

"It has been an extremely positive year for us and we are proud of what we have accomplished.

"We are now focusing on the year ahead and building on our successes.

"There are a lot of projects and initiatives in the pipeline that we are very excited about and we hope will pique our visitors' interests once again."

The £2m BodyWorks exhibition – which opened on March 28 – made Easter very busy at the centre with 32,000 visitors.

Dr Breslin said: "BodyWorks is a real step forward for us. We have received fantastic feedback from those who have visited the exhibition."