A TEAM of firefighters deployed to cut people from their vehicles following crashes on Oxfordshire’s roads competed in an international competition.

Members of Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s extrication team were in Romania – competing against other extrication teams from across the globe in The World Rescue Challenge, which concluded on Sunday.

The county’s team took third place in one of the categories following the rapid scenario challenge, which involves making scenes safe and freeing a casualty.

Back on home soil, the fire service has been showing its support to the team on social media, celebrating its achievements on Twitter and Facebook.

The World Rescue Challenge sees world class rescue and trauma teams compete annually in an event designed to challenge emergency service personnel by developing and enhancing their existing skills and to help raise awareness of the global problem of road death and injury.

More than 50 international teams participate in the challenge each year, which covers two challenge disciplines: extrication and trauma.

Within the extrication challenge, teams are assessed against by a team of dedicated international assessors. Each extrication team consists of six members which includes the team leader, two medics, two technical rescue personnel and one person responsible for operational support.

The Oxfordshire team completed its first 10 minute-rapid scenario challenge, making the scene safe and freeing the ‘casualty’ in just nine minutes.

They were named the third best rapid team. Taking first place was a team based in Lisbon, Portugal. In second place was a team from Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service.

The event takes place all over the world and has, in recent years, been hosted in New Zealand, Brazil, Portugal and Iceland. The first official World Rescue Challenge was held in Scotland in 2000.

For more information about the World Rescue Challenge visit wrescue.org