Man in his 90s evacuated by helicopter from Turriff Haughs due to emergency

A man in his 90s has been evacuated by helicopter due to an emergency at Turriff Haughs.

The Scottish Ambulance Service received a call at 8.49am to attend the Aberdeenshire town.

An ambulance and helicopter from Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance were called to the scene.

The helicopter landed in the grassy park and the casualty was taken onboard before it took off and landed at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

However, both the nature of the medical emergency and the man’s condition are unknown.

It is understood the helicopter landed there due to it being a convenient landing place, not because it is connected to the incident.

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “We received a call at 8.49am to attend an incident at Turriff Haughs, Aberdeenshire.

“We dispatched an ambulance and the helimed to the scene and a patient in his nineties was transported to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.”

Dedicated Turriff ambulance delayed

Turriff has historically had some of the longest waits on record for ambulances.

Figures released by the ambulance service show that Turriff residents wait more than twice as long for an ambulance as those in other parts of the region last year.

Currently, the nearest ambulances are in Banff and Huntly.

Last year it was confirmed Turriff would eventually be receiving its own dedicated ambulance to slash response times.

But on Tuesday, it was announced this new ambulance had been delayed by two months due to staff recruitment issues.

Recruitment issues hold up arrival of Turriff’s dedicated ambulance