A man has died while riding his mountain bike on a popular forest trail in County Durham.
Emergency services were called to Hamsterley Forest near Bishop Auckland at 10.30am on Saturday morning.
Despite the best efforts of the man's friends and paramedics, the 48-year-old from Hartlepool was pronounced dead at the scene.
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A spokesman for Durham Constabulary said: “We had a call from the ambulance stating that a male had come off his mountain bike in the forest.
“He was not breathing and his friends had started CPR.
“There was a little bit of delay for the ambulance to get there due to the terrain and where it was.
“It was at the top end so they did not have full access to it but they did manage to get up there with a defibrillator and the paramedics took over CPR.
“It looks like he was with his friends at the time, so there was someone there with him.
“It is awful.”
A spokeswoman for the North East Ambulance Service said: “We were called yesterday at 10.25am to reports of a cyclist unwell, having fallen from a bike in Hamsterley Forest.
"We dispatched two ambulance crews, a specialist paramedic and the Great North Air Ambulance Service and worked closely with Mountain Rescue teams to access the patient.
"Sadly the patient passed away at the scene, despite the best efforts of those giving CPR and all the teams who attended the scene. We send our condolences to the patient’s family and friends.”
Forestry England, which manages Hamsterley Forest, closed the red and black mountain bike trails following the man's death. The trails were reopened on Sunday morning.
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