Crowden Brook, Kinder Scout. Photo: Phil Champion CC-BY-SA-2.0

A pair of walkers set fire to their map to attract attention from a police helicopter searching for them.

The man and woman were stuck in icy conditions on the highest hill in the Peak District and called for help.

The 26-year-old man and companion, 35, from Dronfield, Derbyshire, rang a friend to raise the alarm after they got stuck on an icy waterfall on Kinder Scout on Friday evening.

Rescuers were unable to contact the walkers’ mobile phone but tracked down relations who gave them the likely route taken.

Edale and Buxton Mountain Rescue Teams and handlers and animals from the Search and Rescue Dogs Association joined in the search for the missing walkers, and the help of the South Yorkshire Police helicopter was requested.

Team members searched the southern side of Kinder Scout for the pair, who had gone equipped for a day’s walking, with rucksacks and a map.

The stuck walkers heard the aircraft flying overhead and set fire to their map to attract the crew’s attention.

The police helicopter landed close to Crowden Brook and flew the walkers to its base in Sheffield where ambulance paramedics checked them over before discharging them.

The pair were cold, tired and wet after having slipped on ice and fallen in the brook, a slip that had also damaged their mobile phone.