A person is in hospital after an incident at a nature reserve and wetlands centre forced it to shut.

Police aided by the helicopter and paramedics were called to the Washington Wetland Centre on Monday (October 14) morning.

The site was forced to close and a total of two ambulance crews attended.

One person was taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital, the ambulance service confirmed.

In a statement the wetland centre said: “We are going to need to delay opening this morning due to an incident on site. We will update as soon as we are able.”

It was confirmed shortly after 11.30am that it would reopen at 12.30pm.

A spokesperson added: "Centre staff at WWT Washington became aware of a situation involving a member of the public in close proximity to the site earlier this morning. Emergency services have taken control and are looking after the person involved.

"The incident didn't involve WWT staff or any of our animals, and the site has now reopened as usual."

A North East Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called to an incident near Wearside Golf Club in Sunderland this morning at 9.41am. We dispatched one ambulance crew, one clinical team leader and two HART crews (Hazardous Area Response Team). One patient was taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital."

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