Girl airlifted to hospital after sledging accident

The girl, who is in her late teens, was airlifted from the village of Fridaythorpe, near Driffield, to York Hospital following the accident at about 1.30pm on Saturday, an ambulance spokesman said.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service was called to assist with the landing of the helicopter at Bootham Park Hospital, near to York Hospital.

Forecasters have said the cold snap is set to end this week with cloud cover moving down the country from the north bringing slightly warmer weather after several days and nights of bitterly cold temperatures.

Britain endured its coldest night since December 2010 on Friday night, with the mercury plummeting to minus 15.6C (3.92F) in Holbeach, Lincolnshire. The weather wreaked havoc on the weekend’s sporting calendar with a number of matches and racing fixtures being cancelled.

The opening round of rugby league’s Northern Rail Cup was also called off.

Paul Knightley, forecaster for MeteoGroup, said: “We are coming to the end of the cold spell. It’s going to be a slow process, it’s not going to suddenly be massively mild.

“Some places will see a dramatic change in temperature but it may not be something people necessarily notice because they have been so low.

“The snow itself is not going to be near the amounts we have seen but there will be some drizzle which will fall on to very cold ground so we will see the risk of some ice, especially in untreated areas. By Monday morning it may well be very grey and foggy in some places but not much frost around.”