MOUNTAIN rescuers were scrambled after a group of hikers on the North York Moors went missing.

The drama began at 11.15am on Tuesday when a party tackling the 42-mile long Lyke Wake Walk phoned police to say that they were lost in poor weather in the Bloworth Crossing area above Ingleby Greenhow, about three miles from the nearest road.

The Cleveland Mountain rescue team attempted to get in touch with the group and locate them through their mobile phone but had no success because of a poor signal.

So the team deployed some of its members in a Landrover ambulance into the area that the missing walkers thought that they were in to make contact with them. The rest of the team was put on standby in case a full-scale search was needed.

However as the Team were approaching Bloworth Crossing the walking group texted to say that they had found out where they were after the fog lifted and were walking with another group to a road.

They were found at around 1pm about two miles from the Lion Inn on the disused railway line - and as they were wet and cold they accepted a lift in the Landrover to the pub and safety.

Team spokesman, Pete Mounsey said “Searching for walkers missing on the Lyke Wake Walk was what the Mountain Rescue Team was set up for in the mid sixties - but modern communications technology meant that today’s incident was solved comparatively easily without a major search being instigated.”

The alert was the 25th call-out for the team so far this year.