SIXTEEN volunteer mountain rescuers spent nearly three hours on the fells responding to reports of distress flares - to find a film crew using them during a shoot.

Keswick Mountain Rescue Team went to Skiddaw on Friday evening after members of the public saw the flares lighting up the sky.

“When a local resident reported a flare being seen on Skiddaw, it was initially greeted with some scepticism, as flares are rarely used these days to raise an alarm," said a team spokesman.

“When however a second one was seen after about an hour at the same location, we decided it had to be followed up.

“A group gathered at base, and a team of seven with two search dogs flogged up from the top of Dodd with all the rescue kit, to discover a film crew making a mountain-biking film.

“In the traditional words of the police, they were ‘offered advice’.”