Rear Door will not open -

[poor1]

Four Door Mk4 Golf (1998). After opening and closing door and driving off one of the dear doors flew open, thankfully without doing any damage.
Examined the latching mechanism - nothing obviously amiss but still failed to latch. Then closed the door again and it latched but will NOT now open, even after operating the central locking a few times.
There is obviously something broken in the latching mechanism although in the open position it did not look unlike the other doors latching systems.
Problem now is how to get at the lock to examine/replace the mechanism with it not now being possible to open the door.
Any ideas:
a) what the problem is and how to rectify it and
b) how to open the door to get at the mechanism.

please

[FLENG2008]

i would start by whipping off the door card, you should be able to open the door that way and maybe see whats broken??

[poor1]

That';s my next step now that I have been able to open the door. Heavan knows that could be done with a door which refused to open. Just wondered whether there was a classic fault and how much or how little of the latching mechanism can be replaced