Second-year zoology student Kimberley Warren activated a rescue beacon on Thursday night which was received by RAF Kinloss in Moray. They raised the alarm and Russian emergency services contacted the party of nine people.

The 20-year-old student at the University of Nottingham was on a two-month trip to discover the effects of global warming on natural habitats in Kamchatka Nature Park, which is situated in a remote part of far eastern Russia, when the accident happened.

A spokesman for the university said: "We can confirm it's Kimberley Warren and that she has been airlifted to the town of Esso. She does have a broken leg but the injury is not remotely life-threatening."

Miss Warren, who is from Sway, Hampshire, said before she went on the trip that she planned to use tracks and traps to look for signs of mammals living in the area.

In her online biography for the expedition's website, she said she was president of her university's rock music society and enjoyed rugby, martial arts and reading.

Flight Sergeant Tim Dickinson, rescue co-ordinator at RAF Kinloss, said she was hurt when she fell off her horse and the alarm was raised around 10pm on Thursday. The UK Mission Control Centre received a signal from the beacon and looked up its owner on its database.

Miss Warren was part of a team of researchers, led by ecology lecturer Dr Markus Eichhorn, who were looking into the effects of global warming on natural habitats. The group has spent the past two months camping in an area of far eastern Russia that is home to the northern hemisphere's largest active volcano.

Wolves, grizzly bears and Arctic foxes also live in the region, which was opened to foreigners only in 1990 after being declared a military zone following the Second World War.

The expedition is being supported by the Royal Geographical Society and British Ecological Society.