Yahoo News Rescue operation at Saltburn beach after passers by heard cries for help in torrential storms
A man is lucky to be alive after being stranded off the coast of Saltburn in torrential storms last night.
Emergency services were alerted to the incident yesterday evening after passers by luckily heard the man's cries for help as rain and wind battered the region. Kathryn Bulmer, had been with her family celebrating a birthday at the Tomahawk restaurant on the sea front when the drama unfolded.
She said: "We were walking back to the car and we all heard a person screaming, we couldn't see anything in the dark, but realised they were screaming help. We came out of the restaurant and we heard somebody shouting and couldn't make out what it was, we thought it might be somebody on the beach with a dog. It was so persistent, you could almost have missed it because of the wind and the waves being so loud."
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Kathryn said her mum ran to the nearby fish and chip shop nearby to ask them to call the coastguard. She said: "The guy from the fish and chip shop ran down to see if he could see anybody on the beach and then a couple of other guys came with a big torch. We could see from the shore there was a man standing in the torrent going down to the sea."
The emergency services arrived, including the coastguard, police and firefighters and the man was brought to safety. She said the man was in a river that runs into the sea and she had never seen it as wide as that before.
Kathryn said: "It was really scary - I think he did really really well to make himself heard over all that noise, and everybody who rescued him obviously, because it was an horrendous night, it was freezing and wind and rain and everything."
She said: "I asked one of the guys who had helped him if the man was alright and he said he was really lucky, he went under a few times."
Kathryn added that as the searchlight panned the water there were times when they couldn't see him and she said she 'feared the worst'. But, everyone was so relieved when it ended safely.
A spokesperson for Cleveland Fire Brigade said: "Cleveland Fire Brigade were called on September 26, 2024 at 8:29pm to an incident on the Lower Promenade, Saltburn. Four fire engines were in attendance from Thornaby and Saltburn. Crews at the scene assisted other emergency services including NEAS. We got the stop around 8:51pm."
A spokesperson for HM Coastguard, said: "HM Coastguard responded to an incident at Saltburn at about 8.25pm on 26 September. Also alerted were Cleveland Police, Cleveland Fire Brigade, and North East Ambulance Service."
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