RESCUE teams were called to a Bolton park after a mountain biker suffered a serious leg fracture.

The 38-year-old rider had been out with his brother and a friend in Moses Gate Country Park, Farnworth.

He had fallen from his bike and damaged his leg. Crews from the North West Ambulance Service were called out.

Paramedics splintered his leg and waited for the arrival of a Bolton Mountain Rescue response crew.

He was put on a stretcher and carried around half-a-mile to an ambulance, which had parked behind the Rock Hall information centre after struggling to get into the park due to a height restriction barrier.

A squad of 13 members of Bolton Mountain Rescue went to the park at 10.40am yesterday, using two Land Rover Mountain Rescue ambulances.

Team member Dave Marsh took one of the mountain bikers and the three bikes to the home of one of the bikers’ friends in Clifton.

The injured rider, from Swinton, was taken to hospital at 11.30am accompanied by his brother.

Team leader Garry Rhodes said: “His leg was seriously fractured and we were called to help ambulance crews gain access to the site and to assist in the man’s evacuation by stretcher.”

The mountain rescue crew was also called to Winter Hill following reports at 11.42am yesterday of a 35-year-old walker having sustained a suspected dislocated shoulder in a fall.

The man managed to walk to the ambulance without assistance, however, and the mountain rescue services were not needed.