A teenager who fell 18 metres (60ft) from a Dorset clifftop after posing for pictures on its edge left emergency crews astonished after they found him with “just a few cuts and grazes”.
The incident at Old Harry Rocks in Studland triggered a major response from the coastguard and emergency services. The 15-year-old boy was on a geography school trip from London, according to local news reports.
The group called 999 after he fell on Thursday afternoon and an air ambulance, the RNLI, the coastguard and police were all scrambled – only for him to be found by lifeboat crews beneath the cliff walking and with only minor injuries.
Ian Brown, a station officer for Swanage coastguard, said: “I’ve been doing this for 34 years and we’ve had some miracles … this is certainly one of those.
“The students had been briefed on not going near the cliff edge but it would appear the group were having some downtime and one lad wanted a photo taken by his friend near the cliff edge. He went towards it, and then his friends said they just saw him disappear over the edge,” he told Somerset Live.
Brown added: “I’d be surprised if he wasn’t a bit sore today, but everyone was absolutely amazed he didn’t have any major injuries. It’s that safety message we want to raise – please stay away from cliff edges.
“When we say don’t go near the cliff edge, we mean within 5 metres. Don’t be tempted to even go near it.”
The boy had been found by kayakers beneath the white cliffs on the Jurassic Coast when the RNLI crew arrived.
Swanage RNLI said its lifeboats were the first at the scene at the base of the cliff on Handfast Point close to Old Harry Rocks. “After an initial assessment the casualty was found to be virtually uninjured with just a few cuts and grazes,” they said.
Because of the “significant height of the fall”, the boy was medically assessed by ambulance crews who could find nothing wrong.
In a blog about the case, Swanage coastguard wrote: “Emergency crews were astonished by the absence of serious injuries. After a thorough evaluation, the student was released back to his group with some strong safety advice about his actions to return home.”
Swanage and St Albans coastguard teams, both Swanage RNLI lifeboats, Dorset police, South Western ambulance, and a Dorset and Somerset air ambulance critical care team all responded to the incident.
