Teenager rescued following cliff fall at Whitehaven
A fifteen-year-old boy has been flown to hospital after falling down cliffs at Salton Bay, Whitehaven. HM Coastguard received a call just after 7.10pm last night (28 April) reporting the fall. Whitehaven & Maryport Coastguard Rescue Teams (CRT) along with St Bees RNLI lifeboat and the HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at Prestwick were sent to the scene. The North West Ambulance service was also involved. The teenager and his mother were flown by helicopter to Carlisle hospital. His condition is not known although it’s thought he may have suffered head, neck and back injuries. Jacob Hill, senior maritime operations officer with HM Coastguard said: ‘The young man had fallen in an awkward spot and it was quickly obvious that we were going to need the helicopter to get him out of there. Thankfully we were able to get him out of there and to a hospital fairly quickly and knowing what the kind of injuries were likely to be, thanks to the work of all those on site.’ At just before 9.40pm the same evening, another call was received reporting someone in the water in Salton Bay. The same rescue teams – Whitehaven and Maryport CRT along with the St Bees RNLI lifeboat, together with the helicopter from Prestwick – searched extensively, along with officers from Cumbria Police but nothing untoward was found. Jacob added: ‘We carried out a search right across the area and couldn’t find anything from that call. It is possible that the first and the second incident reported to us were one and the same.’
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