A woman has been dramatically rescued from rocks after a combined emergency services operation saved her from a nine-metre tide.
Wirral Coastguard Rescue team were called to assist the North West Ambulance Service and Merseyside Police in New Brighton on Saturday morning.
They arrived to find an individual stranded on the end of a groyne with Police officers trying to make their way across the rocks to help her.
But with the tide rapidly on its way in, it was a race against time to execute the daring rescue mission.
The Ambulance Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) were also on scene, as well as Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services, with boat Marine Fire One deployed to act as safety cover whilst the rescue took place.
With all four emergency services in attendance, incident commanders established a multi-agency command point to decide the best way to extricate the casualty safely.
Coastguard Rescue Officers, Firefighters and HART Paramedics in full water rescue protective equipment made their way to the casualty with a basket stretcher to enable Paramedics to carry out an assessment.
With the casualty needing to be removed from the groyne by stretcher, emergency services deployed the 'caterpillar technique', which enables a stretcher to be safely manoeuvred across difficult terrain when it can’t be carried.
Once rescued, the woman - who was in her 20s - was passed onto paramedics before being taken to hospital.
Having reported the incident on the Wirral Coastguard Rescue Team Facebook page, Michael Buratti, HM Coastguard Station Officer and Officer in Charge of the incident said: “This incident was a good example of multi-agency working.
"Coastguard Rescue Officers, Firefighters, Paramedics and Police Officers all worked together and did an excellent job of rescuing the casualty just in time before the water surrounded the rocks.
"The terrain the teams were working on was quite difficult and dangerous but working together, the rescue was carried out extremely effectively.
"If you come across someone in need of assistance on our coastline, call 999 and ask for the Coastguard."
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