Doctors in Glasgow have said premature twins born over the weekend in the Western Isles are in a 'stable' condition.

The brother and sister, who were born about two months early on Sunday, were escorted off the Western Isles to a specialist hospital in Glasgow early on Monday morning.

Their condition was described as "very poor" after an RAF Hercules aircraft was called in to transfer the infants from Stornoway. However, doctors in Glasgow said the babies were in a "stable" condition a few hours later.

The twins - a boy and a girl - are now under close watch at the city's Princess Royal Maternity Hospital.

The emergency rescue operation began when the mother went into labour on Sunday night and was taken to the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway.

The aircraft was called in after severe weather conditions made the transfer to a maternity hospital in Glasgow too dangerous for an air ambulance.

The woman was 27 weeks pregnant when she went into labour, the Scottish Ambulance Service said.

An ambulance spokesman said consultants from the Princess Royal who flew out to Stornoway and travelled with the twins had done "as much as they could to keep them alive" during the flight.

The mother did not accompany the babies on the flight and was in a stable condition in a hospital, he said. She was expected to be transferred to Glasgow later.

A spokeswoman for Western Isles Health Board, meanwhile, said the mother of the twins was in "good health".

She said: "The twins' mother would like to thank the Stornoway and Glasgow teams for the excellent service they provided."

A Scottish Ambulance Service supervisor said a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter carrying medical staff and incubators had landed earlier on Stornoway to help stabilise the twins.

The RAF said the Hercules had been scrambled from a base at Lyneham, Wiltshire, shortly before 1am, carrying a crew of four, plus two RAF medics. It landed at Stornoway on Lewis about 90 minutes later.

The plane set off for Glasgow at 5.40am with the twins in incubators, accompanied by medical staff.

An RAF spokesman said: "Hopefully everyone working together will have given these babies the best possible chance.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We hope that this will have a happy ending."