Brambles save elderly tourist in cliff plunge

The 80-year-old, from Australia, slipped off a cliff path in Mount Edgcumbe Country Park in Cornwall.

But he narrowly avoided falling down the last vertical drop onto rocks when his clothes became snagged. Passing yachtsmen heard the man’s cries for help and raised the alarm at about 11.30am on Wednesday.

Coastguards and Ministry of Defence Police rushed to the scene, where they found the man slowly slipping towards the vertical drop.

A spokesman for the MoD Police said: “Brixham Coastguard requested the assistance of the MoD Police Marine Unit at HM Naval Base Devonport.

“Boats from the unit working from the Naval Base in Plymouth had been carrying out a warship escort in Plymouth Sound when they answered the call for help.

“They lowered him to the rocks below where a team from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency administered first aid.

“The injured man was placed on a stretcher and transported across Plymouth Sound on the MoD Police RIB to a waiting ambulance at Mill Bay.”

Insp Gordon Peter, the marine unit commander, praised his officers for saving the walker from “serious injuries”.