RESCUE volunteers were put on stand-by after a patient disappeared from Fairfield General Hospital over the weekend.

Rossendale Search and Rescue Team broke off from providing safety cover at a duathlon event in Ramsbottom at 12.30pm on Sunday (June 9) after police requested their attendance at the Rochdale Old Road hospital.

However, they were stood down during the briefing by police when the in-patient, whose disappearance during Saturday evening from the psychiatric unit raised fears for her own safety, was located safe and well at Royal Bolton Hospital's Accident and Emergency Department at 12.45pm.