Emergency services were called out in two-hour intervals during Storm Gerrit to save two separate families stuck in Northumberland.

The first call to the services was at 2.40 pm on Wednesday, December 27, when a family of four were trapped in their vehicle by flood waters in the Kielder area.

The family had called 999, which was initially received by Police Scotland but was dropped.

A PhoneFind text was then immediately sent by Northumbria Police, and the emergency services agreed that several 4x4 response vehicles would be deployed to the area to assist in locating the family.

As the first response vehicle left their Rothbury base, a further phone call from the family indicated they were all safe and out of their vehicle.

Two hours later, as Storm Gerrit continued to bring strong winds and heavy rain to Northumberland, the second of two requests for stranded vehicles was received at 4.17 pm at the end of Kielder Forest Drive.

Northumberland Fire & Rescue Service (NFRS) had received the call from a family whose vehicle had gone off the road and they were stuck down a bank on mud and snow.

Considering the weather conditions, NFRS activated Mountain Rescue.

North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team and Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team immediately deployed three 4x4 response vehicles to assist the Fire Service. A Mountain Rescue controller also deployed directly to the scene in their 4x4 vehicle.

As the services were travelling, a PhoneFind location was fixed, which placed the family nearly 18km away in the forest to the northwest of Kielder village.

It was also confirmed that there was no vehicle at the eastern end of the Forest Drive, so at this point, all the Mountain Rescue response vehicles were redirected to Kielder.

Shortly after arriving in Kielder, an NFRS fire appliance followed by a Mountain Rescue response vehicle accessed the family’s location, some 4km into the forest along a muddy and snow-covered track.

With the family safely on board the fire appliance, they were transported out of the forest and put an end to their ordeal.

The incident also involved the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service and the North East Ambulance Service and involved 9 team members for 3 hours and 25 minutes.