Three call-outs in 24 hours for mountain rescue teams in Northumberland

Volunteers from Northumberland Mountain Park Rescue Team (NNPMRT) and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team were asked to assist in three separate incidents, two of them on Tuesday.

The teams were called out on Bank Holiday Monday to assist an injured walker near Milecastle 39 on Hadrian’s Wall.

“We received a request from Northumbria Police to help after a Northumberland National Park Ranger and volunteer Ranger, went to assist the lady who was walking along Hadrian’s Wall,” said Iain Nixon, team leader for NNPMRT. “They were able to provide immediate care and contact the police.”

As team members were deploying, two local team members quickly arrived on scene and provided first aid to the injured walker and stabilised her injury.

Additional mountain rescue volunteers arrived on scene and helped carry the casualty to a mountain rescue vehicle for a short journey to the waiting ambulance.

Late on Tuesday morning, mountain rescue were again called upon, this time by the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS).

“We received a request to assist in the extraction of an injured mountain biker in Kielder Forest,” revealed Iain. “Given the difficult to access location, we quickly mobilised both teams.”

The mountain biker was treated by a NEAS paramedic before they were evacuated on a mountain rescue stretcher to the waiting ambulance.

No sooner had the evacuation begun, the teams received a second request, this time from Northumbria Police. This time, they were asked to assist in the search for a missing child near Alnhammoor in the Breamish valley.

"Fortunately, we had other volunteers who could respond and we were able to deploy another vehicle,” said Iain. “Given the information that a child was missing on the hills, this was a serious concern.”

As one of the team’s duty controllers was devising a search plan and team members were driving into the Breamish valley from the Kielder incident, the Northumbria Police Air Service helicopter thankfully located the missing child and they were safely reunited with their family.

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