Published at 10:17, Thursday, 03 January 2013

MOUNTAIN rescuers from Cockermouth carried out a dramatic late night search operation after a vulnerable woman with learning difficulties went missing.

A 21-strong team began their search for the 48-year-old woman at around 12.30am on New Year’s Day.

Police had alerted the team after staff at a care home in Camerton near Workington reported her missing.

The woman had gone out for a walk at around 3pm and not returned. She was found by the search team in a flooded field just before 2am, distressed and in a hypothermic state, just yards from the River Derwent.

“There may well have been a different outcome if we had not found her till later that morning,” said Mike Park, team leader with Cockermouth Mountain Rescue.

“We asked them to send up a helicopter with thermal imaging equipment and it was on its way to the scene from Lancaster when we found her. One of our team doctors checked her over and we had her stretchered out and taken back to the home.”

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk