A missing woman in urgent need of medical treatment was discovered in a Devon field by the police helicopter.

Officers had been searching for the woman, who was reported missing with concerns for her welfare, near the A38 road.

The National Police Air Service (NPAS) helicopter used SARLOC technology to locate the woman at the edge of woods near Chudleigh at around 4.45pm.

In a tweet, the NPAS Exeter crew said the woman was found in a "remote location" and assessed on the scene.

She was then taken to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth for "urgent treatment".

Kingsbridge Police also tweeted about the incident.

They said: "The NPAS helicopter has just landed in a field next to the A38 after locating an injured missing female.

"She was located using Sarloc Rescue technology which pinpoints the location.

"Excellent use of technology to save life."

What is SARLOC?

According to the Dartmoor Search and Rescue website, SARLOC is a system developed by Russ Hore who was a member of Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation for over 20 years.

The number of callouts rescue teams receive per year is increasing, putting a great strain on the volunteer rescuers who give up their time freely to aid those who come to grief in the moorland and mountainous areas of England and Wales.

Quite often the police receive a mobile phone call from people on the hill who are ‘lost’ normally due to bad weather closing in, poor navigation or being overcome by darkness, sometimes all three.

Given Russ’ initial work in tracking team members he has always been looking for a method of accurately locating these people and finally found a solution which is being used successfully on an increasing number of callouts including those that Dartmoor Search & rescue Ashburton are involved in.

The SARLOC system uses functions of the web browser available on many mobiles. Once the missing person makes the distress call to 999 and the Mountain Rescue Team has been engaged by the Police, the Rescue Team Search Manager sends a SARLOC text to the phone of the missing person.

The caller then just clicks on the link in the text, the webpage asks the phone for it’s location, which is displayed on the Rescue Team’s map.

At the same time the caller sees a page reassuring them that the team know where they are, and help is on it’s way.