A WOMAN was airlifted to hospital after being found collapsed at her home in Hartlepool.

The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) was called to help the North East Ambulance Service at 5pm on Monday after the 35-year-old was found unconscious in her Seaton Lane home.

Fire crews were called to use specialist equipment to move the woman from her property to the waiting air ambulance.

A spokesman for Cleveland Fire Brigade said: "The fire service was called to assist an ambulance crew who had been called to attend to an unconscious patient.

"Specialist equipment needed to be used to assist the ambulance crew in moving the patient from the property. "The crew needed to operate the equipment were spread over the area which resulted in a number of engines attending."

The woman was airlifted to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, where she arrived in a critical condition. Before the flight she was placed in a medically-induced coma.