A WOMAN suffered serious facial injuries and is in intensive care after a mystery accident in a North Yorkshire village.

Police were called to a house in Ingleby Arncliffe, near to Northallerton, on Tuesday (june 16) to find the injured woman.

Named locally as Margaret Barlow, 53, she was airlifted to the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, by the Great North Air Ambulance.

She is believed to be a midwife at the same hospital and she was in a serious but stable condition on Wednesday, June 17.

It is thought she was found lying at the foot of the stairs in the family home by her 11-year-old son as he came home from Ingleby Arncliffe Junior School.

Mrs Barlow has an older daughter at Stokesley School and has recently separated from her husband named by villagers as Steve.

North Yorkshire Police are not treating her injuries as suspicious and are not looking for anyone in connection with them.

But there was a large police presence in the village June 17 and a mobile police station was located at the edge of the quiet North Yorkshire village.

Officers carried out interviews with residents near to the house on a link road leading from Ingleby Arncliffe to the A19.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said: "There has been a white forensic tent outside the house all day, and a search of all the hedges.

"There was also what looked like a fingertip search of the street."

The resident added: "They had lived in the village for eight or nine years, and weren’t all that well known. They kept themselves to themselves really."

Rumour were rife in the village over what had happened with many locals unsure of the details and different stories circulating.

One local said: "We heard there had been a serious incident but we don’t know what happened."

This is the second time this week that Ingleby Arncliffe, on the edge of the North York Moors, has been in the news.

On Monday, June 15, Hambleton District Council planning officers demolished a £400,000 house built without planning approval after a five year legal fight.

Last night another resident said: "People say this is a tranquil village but it certainly hasn’t been this week, with all this going on."

Anyone who can help with police enquiries should call 0845-6060-247 or Crimestoppers on 0800-555-111.