Woman rescued from cliff after car plunge

Falmouth Coastguard said the 56-year-old woman became stranded on the rock face at St Agnes in Cornwall on Monday.

It was only shortly before 9.30am on Tuesday that the alarm was raised.

A dramatic rescue operation took place as the emergency services secured the vehicle and the woman was winched to safety.

Coastguard rescue teams from St Agnes and Newquay attended as well as a rescue helicopter from RAF Chivenor, police and Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service.

A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said: “Coastguard rescue officers on scene were able to establish that the 56-year-old woman inside the car was injured but conscious and that the vehicle had gone over the cliff the previous day.

“The car was secured in place by the coastguards and fire and rescue officers and the woman was then extracted from the vehicle.

“The coastguard rescue team winched the casualty up the cliff and she was transferred to Treliske Hospital, Truro, by RAF helicopter.”

A member of the public who climbed down the cliff to help the woman also needed to be rescued, the MSA said.

Earlier Mike Pulley, station manager at the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI), St Agnes Head, said the cliffs in the area where the car was trapped are 300ft (91.5m) high.

The 64-year-old volunteer said: “The cliffs around here have got quite a bit of a slope – they are not sheer cliffs – and that may well have saved this driver.”