Dementia patient, 80, rescued from rail line

Rescuers saved a missing dementia patient after she was found wandering on the east coast rail line.

The woman in her 80s was reported missing after a home alarm triggered when she left her house in the Scottish Borders at about 9.15pm on Thursday.

Police called out the Borders Search and Rescue Unit at 1am and the team began searching the area around the woman’s home in Ayton, near Eyemouth, aided a couple of hours later by a search-and-rescue helicopter based at Prestwick, South Ayrshire.

The helicopter’s infrared imaging system picked up a heat source next to the tracks of the East Coast Main Line shortly before 4am.

The mountain rescue team contacted police to put a stop on any trains on the line and were directed to the missing woman by the helicopter.

Rescue team leader Stuart Fuller-Shapcott said: “The missing woman was just off the railway track. Howshehadgotupthere is a mystery – she walked with a pair of sticks.”

A Duck Tours boat which offers trips on the River Thames