YORK Rescue Boat volunteers have taken part in live training on the River Ouse.

The crew were joined by members of Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team, who entered the water to play out a number of scenarios for the rescue boat volunteers to deal with.

Dave Benson, founder of the York Rescue Boat, said: "There were six people in the water at points, a couple at a time, and we recovered them with the boat or with ropes, utilising our guys on the shore. It's the kind of practice you can only get with live incidents.

"The Scarborough guys were shouting at us and swimming away from us, or acting drunk. One acted as if he had a broken leg, so they were putting us in situations which we can expect to come across while on patrol."

The exercise took place at Kings Staith over about two and a half hours on Wednesday evening, and Mr Benson said the training had highlighted some points which they needed to address.

He said: "It went really well. The debriefing brought up some learning points we hadn't come across before, and we will be implementing them into our standard operating procedures, but it was good for everyone."