Rescuers scaled a slippery cliff face to save two climbers who had been stuck overnight in the Snowdonia mountain range.

The climbers - students from London - were unhurt, and were carefully lowered to safety 200ft with ropes.

Snowdonia has seen numerous rescues

An RAF Sea King helicopter based at Valley in Anglesey was able to land nearby and fly them off the mountain.

The drama happened on Glyder Fach above Snowdonia's Ogwen Valley, an area popular with visiting climbers.

The young men were part of a larger group, most of whom had completed the Saturday afternoon climb successfully.

The pair found themselves trapped by darkness and cloud and decided it was safer to remain where they were overnight.

Rope lowered

Soon after dawn on Sunday, 28 men - from the Ogwen Mountain Rescue Organisation and RAF Stafford - took part in the rescue operation, battling against heavy cloud and strong gusts.

Two of the Ogwen team climbed to where they could lower a rope to the stranded pair.

In June, two climbers were air-lifted to hospital after falling 100 feet in the Snowdonia mountain range in north Wales.

Rescue teams were alerted to the incident near Beddgelert by a female climber using her mobile phone.

She told rescuers she had a climber falling.

The man had been able to get to his feet, but then collapsed again, she said.

In a mission co-ordinated by North Wales Police, members of the local mountain rescue team and a rescue helicopter from RAF Valley were sent to the scene.

The winchman was expecting to find just one casualty, but when he arrived at the scene saw the second injured person.

The helicopter then left to fetch members of a mountain rescue team from RAF Leeming in Yorkshire, who were training in the area.

When they returned, they winched both the injured climbers aboard and flew them to hospital in Bangor.