Charity seeks emergency volunteers

A Scottish charity is seeking hundreds of volunteers willing to drop everything and help out if their community is hit by an emergency.

The British Red Cross in Scotland wants to form a practical taskforce of people able to carry out jobs such as filling sandbags and sorting food.

The organisation launched a campaign to recruit community reserve volunteers able to jump into action in emergencies such as flooding or power cuts caused by heavy snow.

Simon Lewis, head of crisis response for the Red Cross, said: “We’ve seen through the sad events of this year, including the Manchester Arena and London Bridge attacks and the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the extraordinary levels of compassion shown by ordinary people from local communities when a crisis hits.

“It shows you don’t need special skills to help others. Small acts of kindness can make a huge difference.” Volunteers would be called out by text message when needed.