THE first batch of North-East volunteers who will become First Responder lifesavers have started their training.

The initiative aims to recruit and train volunteers who can attend heart attack victims and keep them alive while awaiting an ambulance.

North-East ambulance chiefs need to set up such a network to stand a chance of meeting tough Government targets for response times, and to reduce heart attack deaths.

Seventeen volunteers are being trained in County Durham in lifesaving skills and the use of automatic heart-start machines.

A spokeswoman for the North East Ambulance Service said that volunteers were also needed for four other pilot sites, in Chopwell, Tyne and Wear, and Seahouses, Blyth Valley and Allendale, in Northumberland.

Colin Cessford, ambulance service director of clinical standards and quality, said: "First responders will become a very important part of the ambulance service.

"They will not be used in any way as an alternative to ambulance responses."

The first trained volunteers are due to go on duty later this month.

Anyone who would like to volunteer as a First Responder should contact Colin McAllister on 0191-273 1212.