UPDATED: Police have identified the woman who was swept to her death in floodwaters as 53-year-old Vanessa Robson from Beverley.

The tragedy struck at a remote beauty spot on the North York Moors during torrential rain yesterday.

Hours of rainfall turned the normally gentle beck into a raging torrent and it is believed Ms Robson's Land Rover was swept away when she tried to drive through a swollen ford.

Firefighters, coastguards, police and an RAF Sea King helicopter scoured the area after a passerby raised the alarm, but it was four hours before her body was found. Police have launched an investigation into the tragedy.

4x4 swept away at beauty spot

Her body was pulled from Hartoft Beck in Cropton Forest, Ryedale, at 4.20pm yesterday following a huge rescue operation mounted by police, coastguards, fire crews and a Sea King helicopter from RAF Leconfield.

It is believed she tried to cross a ford which had become heavily swollen due to recent rain and snow but her Land Rover was swept away before coming to rest on its side 200 metres away, at Muffles Bridge.

The alarm was raised by a passerby who saw the vehicle partly-submerged at about 12.20pm, but it was four hours before her body was found.

It is not known whether she had been thrown from the car or whether she had tried to escape and was swept away.

Rick Bragg, winch operator on the Sea King helicopter, said the search had been hampered by the conditions and by debris and tree stumps washed downstream. The four-man crew was initially unable to find any trace of anyone who may have been in the vehicle but four hours later, as the water began to subside, the woman’s body was found. It is not thought anyone else was in the 4x4 vehicle.

Insp Tim Hutchinson, Ryedale Police commander, said: “River levels were very, very high and it took some time to search the car and the area. We have had a lot of rain and river levels are well up.”

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said an investigation had been launched.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said a diving team from West Yorkshire Police had been scrambled, but firefighters were unable to launch their rescue boats due to the severe conditions. Officers instead scoured the river bank. Fire crews from Kirkbymoorside, Pickering, Whitby and Richmond all attended.

The spokesman said the local geography meant all the rain would have flowed down to Muffles Bridge, where the tragedy occurred.

RAF pilot Flight Lieutenant Nigel Lynch said: “We received a call at 12.35pm saying that a car was in the river.

“When we arrived there about 30 minutes later, the emergency services were there and we were asked to fly the length of the river to look for any survivors.

“It seems as though a car had tried to cross the river and was jammed underneath the bridge.”

Hartoft Beck is a tributary of the River Seven and, according to a member of staff at the nearby New Inn, locals said they had never seen the waters so fierce.

Phyllis Wilson, of White House Farm in Hartoft, said the beck was usually a trickle, but was flowing heavily yesterday after the heavy rain.

“We wouldn’t cross our own ford with it like this,” she said.

She said the ford where the incident happened led to just two or three properties, and was their only crossing over the beck.

Jane Jackson, of Birch House, Hartoft, said: “The beck is in full spate and I wouldn’t dare cross it. It’s even deeper where this has happened, further downstream, as all the ditches that go into it are full.”

•Hartoft Beck was one of a number of areas across the region hit by sudden flooding after prolonged heavy rain yesterday. Firefighters pumped floodwater away from the Spar shop in Selby Road, Eggborough, and there were also reports of flooding in Stillington and in Acomb Park, York. Last night, there were Environment Agency flood warnings on the River Foss from Stillington to the Ouse at York, with Huntington Road in York said to be at risk. There was also a warning for the River Derwent near Old Malton and Norton.