Police were today searching the area around a house in a North Yorkshire village after a woman was taken to hospital with a head injury.

The 36-year-old woman was taken to York District Hospital by ambulance at about 6am today from the house in Northfield Terrace, in Church Fenton, near Tadcaster. Police, who were called in by the ambulance service, said no-one had been arrested. Shocked residents awoke to discover three police vans parked outside the house and officers searching the garden. They also saw someone, dressed in a white forensics coverall entering the house.

One resident said: "We thought there had obviously been some sort of serious incident." Another neighbour said he had heard that the woman had collapsed and fallen down stairs.

Det Chief Inspector Steve Barlow, leading the investigation, said an ambulance was called at 5.30am reporting that a woman was suffering from head injuries.

Updated: 14:44 Friday, April 27, 2001