A search was launched in a race against time to find a mother who threatened to take her own life.

The 35-year-old woman left her home at Horsted Keynes, near Haywards Heath, on Saturday and phoned relatives in an "extremely distressed state" soon after 1pm, said police.

Inspector Mark Powells, of Sussex Police, said: "She told them that she had tablets with her which she intended to take."

The police helicopter joined the search in the Ashdown Forest area but it was not until just after midnight that the woman was found in her car in the car park at Holtye golf course, near East Grinstead, and taken to hospital.