STAFF at York railway station have used defibrillators to save people's lives twice in the past three weeks.

Station operator LNER invested more than £100,000 in 2019 in the installation of 135 Automated External Defibrillators (AED) on-board its trains and at stations along the East Coast Mainline route and staff training.

Now the equipment has provided its worth in two separate medical emergencies at the station involving members of the public.

Managing director David Horne has tweeted: "A huge well done to the four members of our @LNER York station team who have saved two lives with CPR and defibrillators in the past three weeks."

Claire Ansley, Customer Experience Director at LNER, said: “At LNER every minute counts and every second counts when it comes to saving a life. We're all therefore extremely proud of the team at York Station who not only intervened once but twice in recent weeks to save a life by using the Automated External Defibrillators at the station.

"It's a great example of how our customer experience teams go above and beyond to keep customers safe."

LNER said in 2019 that about 60,000 people had a cardiac arrest outside hospital every year and fewer than two per cent of victims had an AED deployed before the ambulance arrives, but defibrillation within three to five minutes of collapse could produce survival rates as high as 50–70 per cent.