A PATIENT-CARRYING ambulance had to be rescued by the fire service after being marooned during a weekend of flooding.

The rescue vehicle was attempting to take a patient to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) on Saturday morning when it became stranded at Station Road in Old Kilpatrick.

Over the space of just a few hours, a month's worth of rain hit the area, causing travel chaos all over the west coast of Scotland and beyond.

The incident, which took place just after 10am, meant a call was made to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service who came to both the paramedics and the patient's aid.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) praised their emergency colleagues' response rate and thanked them for their help.

A SAS spokesperson said: “We are grateful for the assistance of our colleagues in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service who were able to help when one of our ambulances got into difficulty as a result of the extreme weather conditions experienced across Scotland over the last few days.

"The patient was transported in a separate ambulance to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.”

A SFRS spokesperson added: “We were called to assist an emergency service partner at 10.34am on Saturday, October 7, to reports of a vehicle stuck in the water at Old Kirkpatrick, on slip road to Erskine Bridge.

“Operations Control mobilised specialist water rescue units to the scene, where firefighters recovered one casualty and four passengers to a position of safety."