Busy time for mountain rescue teams in Northumberland as volunteers called to incidents at Kielder and in the Cheviots

The first incident came in on Monday afternoon when the father of a family out walking near Kielder suffered a lower leg injury.

He has been standing on a bank at the edge of the water which collapsed, resulting in a serious fall onto rocks below in the water. He was able to get out of the water, but couldn’t put any weight on his leg and called 999.

Twelve mountain rescue volunteers worked alongside the community paramedic from the North East Ambulance Service to stabilise the casualty before a 500m stretcher carry through the woods to an ambulance.

A second call came through in early evening when one of four young men climbing The Cheviot sustained a lower leg injury and was unable to continue.

Northumberland National Park MRT and North of Tyne MRT were called out and those members at Kielder re-deployed to the Harthope Valley.

The men had begun the difficult walk down from the summit in an attempt to keep warm and were met by mountain rescue volunteers just before 7pm. They were able to make their way to safety.

Northumberland National Park MRT leader Iain Nixon said “The group had done the right thing by calling 999 and asking for the police and then mountain rescue. We would always advise that if someone is in difficulty, they call first so that we’re in a position to offer help quickly.”

“Despite it being a bit lighter, we still recommend that you dig out your torch, check the batteries and throw that in your bag along with extra warm layers.”