The injured caver was stretchered to Bull Pot Farm

Three rescue teams spent much of Christmas Day underground helping a caver who was injured by a falling rock.

The Cave Rescue Organisation was alerted about 5.40pm yesterday, Sunday, when the 39-year-old man suffered a serious leg injury in the Ease Gill system, on the western fringe of the Yorkshire Dales.

The caver was hit by the falling boulder in Molluscan Hall and members of the Clapham-based rescue team called in help from the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association and Kendal Mountain Rescue Team.

Rescuers gave the man pain relief and splinted his leg before bringing him to the surface via County Pot, 10 hours after he went underground.

Members of the Kendal team stretchered the man, described as a 6ft-tall, heavy casualty, across wet and boggy ground to an ambulance waiting at Bull Pot Farm.

The injured caver was then taken to hospital and rescuers were back home around midnight. The rescue was the CRO’s 82nd of the year.