FELL rescuers and police were yesterday praised after working through the night to locate a confused woman, within hours of her going missing.

The 56-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer was found cowering for warmth in a classroom doorway in a locked compound at the village primary school, in Langley Park, near Durham City, at 4am yesterday.

Cold, but otherwise uninjured, she was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham, in Durham, for precautionary treatment, before being released.

The woman, who was described as being in a "confused state", was reported missing by her distressed family on Thursday afternoon.

She was last seen in her home village of Langley Park during lunch-time that day.

Uniformed police officers checked local streets and paths while dog handlers covered the nearby Lanchester Valley walkway and surrounding areas.

Shortly before midnight an eight-strong specialist team from the Teesdale and Weardale Search and Rescue group began a street-by-street sweep of the entire area.

Within four hours they located the woman in the compound, having apparently been inadvertently locked in by school staff leaving the premises on Thursday afternoon.

Police in the Derwentside division of the Durham force said the woman's concerned family was "delighted" when she was found safe and well