Boy airlifted after Helvellyn fall

A 10-year-old boy was flown to hospital after falling 165ft (50m) down a snow-covered mountain.

The boy, from Preston, was climbing down Swirral Edge ridge on Helvellyn in the Lake District with his father when he slipped on a steep slope, Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team said.

A doctor and paramedic were dropped on the ridge by an air ambulance, and rescuers made their way to the boy.

He was conscious, but doctors suspected he had pelvic and head injuries, and he was placed on a vacuum mattress.

The boy, his father and a doctor were winched into an RAF Sea King helicopter, which flew them to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

Swirral Edge is one of two edges enclosing the cirque of Red Tarn below the 3,117ft (950m) summit of Helvellyn, England's third highest mountain.