AN ELDERLY walker was rescued after becoming stuck waist-deep in a freezing bog on the North York Moors yesterday.

The man, in his 70s, was hiking near Castleton when he attempted to cross a stream around half a mile from Hob Hole and ended up in the bog.

Runners competing in the Eskdale Eureka Fell run event helped pull him out of the water and on to dry land.

They guided the man and another walker, who were both in their 70s and from Knaresborough, to the nearest road where the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team were waiting in a Landrover.

Some of the team members were helping to marshall the race, a nine-mile run across the moors from Castleton to Baysdale and back.

The elderly walkers were taken to the Eskdale pub at Castleton to dry out and warm up, before mountain rescue volunteers took them back to their car.

A spokesman for the team said: "It's a good job that the fell runners saw the couple as they would have been in serious danger without help."

The fell runners from the Esk Valley Fell Club frequently support the mountain rescue team through their events and yesterday handed over a cheque for £703 to the charity.