A farmer who has been missing for two nights turned up at his home apparently safe and well this morning.

Cliff Allen, 50, disappeared after his Land Rover hit a wall near Selset Reservoir in Lunedale, County Durham, on Tuesday evening.

A major search operation was launched to find him, led by Teesdale and Weardale Search And Rescue volunteers as well as local police.

Shortly before 8am this morning, police in Barnard Castle received a call from Mr Allen's daughter to say that the father-of-two had just returned to the family farm at Gayle, near Hawes, North Yorkshire.

A spokesman for Durham Police said: "At the moment it is not known where Mr Allen has spent the last two nights or whether he was aware people had been trying to find him.

"North Yorkshire Police will be visiting the farm later today to confirm officially that he has returned and to ask him what happened after his vehicle crashed.

"Sergeant Bob Danby, of Barnard Castle police, said his officers would also need to speak to Mr Allen in due course but at the moment he was relieved that he appeared to have come to no harm."

Mr Allen, of Scaur Head Farm, Gayle, had bought two sheep at St John's Chapel, Weardale, and was returning to his farm when his Land Rover hit a wall at East Nettlepot Farm on the B7276 Teesdale to Brough road, shortly after 6pm on Tuesday.

As paramedics tended his injured passenger, Mr Allen walked off across the moors in the direction of Selset reservoir.

Twenty four members of the Teesdale Search and Rescue Team joined the search. They were later joined by members of Kirkby Stephen Fell Rescue from Cumbria and a police helicopter.

The passenger in the Land Rover was airlifted to James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, with minor injuries.