A TEENAGE boy suffered a suspected broken leg in a fall down a steep embankment at a beauty spot.

The 15-year-old slipped while attempting to clamber up the slope at Castle Eden Dene, Peterlee, County Durham, shortly before 1pm yesterday.

Two friends alerted the emergency services and a rope rescue crew was dispatched from nearby Peterlee station.

Assisted by paramedics, who set up a drip after being lowered down to the casualty, the team took about 90 minutes to lift the boy up the bankside in a stretcher attached to ropes.

The victim was taken to Hartlepool General Hospital for treatment for a suspected fractured right leg.

Station officer Eddie Freeman said the boy appeared to have suffered the injuries in the fall of up to 20 metres, and was found lying in soft mud at the foot of the embankment when the crew arrived on the scene.

A spokesman for Peterlee police said: "He was down there with two friends and unfortunately he's been the one to slip.

"But the fire rescue crew did a cracking job to bring him out. It was a job well done."