A TEAM of firefighters, who cut people out of cars following crashes, have been declared the best in the world at their job.

The Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service team was crowned World Extrication Champions at the world’s biggest rescue challenge competition.

After battling against teams from all over the world in road traffic collision scenarios, the Hampshire team took the winner’s crown, beating a team from County Carlow, in Ireland, who were runners-up, and a team from Valencia, in Spain, who took third place.

To add to the team title, the Hampshire crew also brought home three other awards, including Best Overall World Extrication Team Leader.

Lee Havey, who won the team leader title, said: “It is absolutely fantastic to take away the winner’s title from the World Extrication Challenge.

“We are very confident in our firefighters’ abilities when they attend road traffic collisions, and now that we have been crowned world champions, it just shows that what we do, we do very well.”

The 16th World Rescue Challenge was hosted by The Fire Service College, in Gloucestershire, and saw teams compete in a number of multi-vehicle collision scenarios where casualties needed rescuing, some of which had deteriorating conditions. The crews also had to show experience of using all types of rescue equipment used in extrications.