TEAMS from Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS) have scooped top awards for their life-saving expertise.

At the Irish National Challenge 2016, the HWFRS trauma team was crowned Best International Team, while the extrication team was dubbed Best International Extrication Team and Best Technical Team.

The two-day challenge at Tayto Park theme park in County Meath saw the HWFRS teams compete against other fire services, motorsport professionals and a mine rescue team.

To win the prizes, they tackled a range of difficult scenarios which put their life-saving skills to the test.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer John Hodges said: "Both teams have given an excellent performance and demonstrated world-class expertise.

"Competitions such as this are invaluable as they allow our firefighters to further enhance their skills, which then ultimately enables us to fine tune our approach and respond to any incident in the best way possible."

Firefighter Jayne Collins, who competed as part of the trauma team, added: "The Irish National Challenge was an excellent opportunity to learn and share information with world leading trauma teams and assessors.

"These challenges on the world stage give us the opportunity to ensure HWFRS is right at the front of pushing forward patient care and our results give us confidence that we are providing a first class service.

"We are truly passionate about what we do and committed to continued development."

Both teams will now go forward to compete again at the HWFRS Rescue Challenge against other contenders from across the two counties who wish to compete to represent the Service at the UK National Challenge in Hampshire later this year.