The injured woman is winched into the RAF Sea King

A woman was airlifted from a south Wales hillside after injuring herself on a caving trip.

The 51-year-old, from Wiltshire, was with a group in caves on the Llangattock hillside near Crickhowell on Tuesday when she suffered the injury underground.

The party was exploring systems on Mynydd Llangatwg when the incident happened.

Group members brought her to the surface then rang for help.

Longtown, Brecon, Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Teams and Western Beacons Mountain Search and Rescue Team attended and prepared to stretcher the woman to safety.

Luke Lewis, deputy team leader, from Abergavenny-based Longtown MRT, said: “We needed a good number of members as initially the cloud was too low for a helicopter to reach her and she was almost a mile from the nearest road across difficult terrain.”

He said fortunately the cloud lifted and the RAF Sea King search and rescue helicopter from RMB Chivenor was able to fly to the scene.

An RAF paramedic was winched down to the woman and treated her with the help of mountain rescue team members. She was transferred to a stretcher and winched aboard.

The caver was flown by the RAF Sea King helicopter to the University of Wales Hospital, in Cardiff.

Duncan Forbes of Brecon MRT said: “This incident shows just how closely all the emergency services work together.

“It was thanks to the work of the mountain rescue teams, Welsh Ambulance Service and the RAF search and rescue crew that the injured woman was treated and evacuated so quickly.”