TWO lost hikers were found safe and well and an injured potholer was pulled from a cave in lifesaving rescue operations at the weekend.

The two walkers called 999 using their mobile phone after getting lost in freezing temperatures 2,000ft up in the Yorkshire Dales on Saturday evening.

Police used high-tech equipment to trace the call and sent out a plane from Durham Tees Valley Airport to search for them.

Rescuers from Teesdale and Weardale Search and Rescue team, together with colleagues from the Swaledale team, found the men close to Rogan's Seat, on Arkengarthdale Moor, near Tan Hill, at 9pm, four hours after the distress call.

David Bartles-Smith, leader of the Teesdale and Weardale team, said: "Darkness was starting to fall and they didn't have a torch so they were unable to proceed.

"However, they coped quite well. The did exactly what they were told and stayed where they were until they were found.

"It's always worth taking a mobile phone if you have one, but you shouldn't rely on it.

"Walkers should also always take some kind of lighting."

The men, who were believed to be from outside the region, did not need hospital treatment.

The Teesdale and Weardale volunteers have been called out at least ten times in the past two weeks to find motorists trapped in the snow, missing teenagers and a dog that fell into a quarry.

The incident was the second rescue of outdoor pursuit enthusiasts in the Yorkshire Dales at the weekend.

A potholer was pulled from a cave after becoming trapped underground at Chapel-le-Dale, between Ingleton and Hawes, North Yorkshire, on Saturday afternoon.

The man fell and broke a leg in a cave called Roaring Hole.

A team from the North Yorkshire-based Cave Rescue Organisation freed the man, who was with a group of cavers from Sheffield, after a seven-hour operation.

Steve Finch, duty controller of the Cave Rescue Organisation, said it was a particularly difficult rescue.

He said: ''It was particularly dangerous for our members in terms of rockfall. The man was stranded about half-a-mile into the system of caves, and it was a difficult procedure trying to remove him."

A helicopter took the man to Lancaster General Hospital.