FIVE walkers were rescued from the Cleveland Hills in the early hours of this morning after becoming lost in poor weather conditions.

Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team were called out at midnight to look for the group of five men who had phoned the police and said that they were lost on the moors.

The group of walkers, who were aged between 19 and 21 and from Stockton and Eaglescliffe, had set out from the top of Carlton Bank at around 6pm when conditions were bright.

However by 8.30pm the weather was deteriorating quickly, as low cloud and heavy rain reduced visibility to a few feet.

As darkness fell the group lost their way and after wandering around the moor for some time, they realised they were lost and phoned for help.

Members of the mountain rescue team managed to make contact with the group by mobile phone and established  they had walked past the old glider station on Carlton Bank.

Just after midnight two Land Rovers, a search dog and 18 members of the rescue team began their search of the paths across from Carlton towards Scugdale.

With visibility almost zero, the team put on the blue lights and sirens of the vehicles in the hope that the group would see and hear them.

The strategy worked and the group were able to walk toward the team vehicle and were finally rescued at 1.40am.

Mountain rescue team spokesman Barry Warrington said: “Conditions were appalling. Fortunately we were able to keep contact with the group via mobile phone.

"With the limited information they were able to give us, together with a lot of local knowledge we were able to locate the group relatively quickly and get the lads safely off the moor.

"They were all cold and soaked through. If they had ended up spending the night on the moor circumstances might have been very different.”