POLICE are still investigating after more than 140 cockle pickers became stranded on Morecambe Bay when two tractors crashed.

Police and RAF helicopters were scrambled as a major search and rescue operation was launched when a fisherman raised the alarm at 10am on Saturday.

It was reported that a tractor-trailer carrying around 60 Scottish cocklers and a second trailer with more than 70 Chinese cocklers aboard had collided.

They then got trapped in the sand next to the Lancaster channel - one of four deep gullies that criss-cross the area.

The incident came just six months after 21 Chinese cocklers perished in Morecambe Bay after being trapped by rising tides at Hest Bank.

The large-scale operation using three hovercrafts, four lifeboats and two helicopters went on for more than two hours as rescuers plucked the cocklers from the sands four miles from the coast near Newbiggin in Furness.

Morecambe lifeboat station manager Mike Guy says: "Four of our RNLI lifeboats were launched to assist in the incident and we worked with various other agencies to ensure that all the cocklers who wished to return to shore managed to do so safely."

Newbiggin resident Bill Clouter, who lives next to the coast, saw the rescue operation on Saturday. He and his wife Gwenda feared another tragedy on the scale of the February disaster was about to unfold before them.

He says around 60 people were airlifted off the sands, with helicopters making repeated take-offs and landings in a field close to his home.