An ambulance paramedic from Liskeard was among a team of volunteers involved in a successful rescue mission on the flooded Limpopo River in Mozambique this week.

Nick Spence, 34, is a veteran of disasters in Turkey, Honduras and Peru. He is one of a team of four from Cornwall and Devon who saved a woman from drowning in the river, after her baby was lifted safely into a helicopter. Nick, who arrived in Mozambique last Friday, is one of two paramedics in the team, which also comprises two Bude lifeboatmen.

Their initial job, as part of a group of ten volunteers with the international rescue charity Rapid UK, was to set up a base at Chibuto from which boat rescue missions on the river are linked up with the South African Air Force. The team set out from this base in l7' inflatable lifeboats - which Rapid UK bought for £10,000 last week for work in Mozambique - and took the woman back to a refugee camp at Chipata. There she was thankfully reunited with her baby.

The news of the rescue was relayed to a spokesman for the ambulance service in the West Country, Darren Gibson. Mr Gibson was able to speak directly to Mr Spence, and with 44-year-old Okehampton paramedic Graham Payne who is the team leader and founder of the rescue charity. Mr Gibson said the woman and baby had been seen initially by a team in the helicopter. For around 20 minutes they tried to winch both from the river without success, by which time the woman was so worn out she let them take her baby to safety, without her.

Mr Gibson said that the helicopter crew, who were running low on fuel, immediately radioed for the lifeboats. They rushed to the scene, and plucked the woman from the torrent.

Other people rescued by the team have included four children from a tree top which they had occupied for over a week, and a woman with injuries to her foot who had been stuck in mud for days. Mr Gibson said: 'These people would not be alive if Graham and the boys had not been there. They were the first foreign team in that region, and we are all so proud of them.'

John Holland, deputy director for Gloucestershire-based Rapid UK, said Nick is based around 20km upriver from Chibuto, and he and the team had also helped set up the refugee camp, which is housing around 500 people - many of whom are in need of medical aid. Mr Holland said the camp was stable, but malaria cases are beginning to appear. The Bude lifeboatman working alongside Nick are Tim Goodearl, 36 and Paul Westaway, aged 39.