Incoming tide risk in cliff-fall rescue

Rescuers raced an incoming tide to stabilise a critically injured man who fell 15 metres down a cliff at a Christchurch beach.

A police spokeswoman said emergency services were called to the incident at Taylors Mistake about 7.40pm on Thursday.

The initial report was the man had fallen about 50 metres, she said. However, a witness told The Press the fall was closer to 15m.

A St John media alert said one person was taken to Christchurch Hospital in a critical condition. He was believed to be aged about 19 years old.

The man’s current condition is not known. The Canterbury CDHB said they could not give a condition update due to privacy and police did not know.

The witness, who did not want to be named, said the man was climbing up the cliff on his own. He fell on to rocks at the southern end of the beach by a row of baches.

Another witness said his friends, who were not from New Zealand, were on the beach and saw him fall.

An inflatable rescue boat tried to rescue him but was unable to reach him.

The Press understands the man was unconscious after the fall. He had serious head, leg and possible back injuries.

A Westpac rescue helicopter spokesman said they were called about 7.45pm and arrived 25 minutes later.

The crew used a winch rope and lowered it down to the man, who was put on a stretcher by paramedics.

‘‘He was probably 30m from the beach by the rock face under a fairly significant overhang, on rocks about a metre above the tide,’’ the spokesman said.

The rope dropped about 26m to reach the injured man on the rocks.

Members of the Taylors Mistake Surf Life Saving Club helped with the rescue. Patrol operations manager Mike Smith said the man landed on rocks at the water’s edge as the tide was coming in, so it was time critical to get him stabilised and out.

An off-duty paramedic, members of the surf life saving club, and an Advanced Care paramedic initially helped the injured man, Smith said.

He said the helicopter landed on the beach and its paramedics went to the injured man on foot to stabilise him and prepare him to be winched onto the helicopter.

Smith said the pilot did an excellent job flying tight to the cliff face in fading light and a blowing wind to winch the man on to the helicopter in a tight space.

He said many people ‘‘severely underestimate the stability of those cliffs and how tricky they are’’, with others having to be winched off the rocks in the past few years.