THREE call-outs in four days have underlined the versatility of a voluntary emergency service.

Sunday saw the Swaledale Fell Rescue team in action near Gunnerside.

Members of the unit were assembling in the village at the end of a training exercise when they were approached by a rambler who told them she had come across a walker in distress on a nearby fell.

A rescue mission was immediately launched and quickly reached the man, who had injured his chest in a fall.

As he was unable to walk, he was stretchered to a suitable landing point for an RAF helicopter, which flew him to Northallerton's Friarage Hospital for treatment.

The Fell Rescue team had already been out to a farm in the Arkengarthdale area on Saturday to assist a farmer find and rescue a calf, which became trapped in a cesspit.

Meanwhile, a caver was pulled from old lead mines above Gunnerside, on Thursday night.

He was with a party exploring underground caverns but was trapped in a rock fall, which broke his leg.

It took the rescue unit an hour to free him before he was flown to hospital in Middlesbrough for treatment in the early hours of Friday.