By Pat Flynn
A young woman has been airlifted to hospital in the early hours of this morning after she was found with serious injuries at the base of a seven-metre (23 foot) cliff in Co. Clare.
The alarm was raised at around 2.30am when the woman in her early 20s was reported to have fallen onto the shoreline from a cliff at Spanish Point.
A complex major multi-agency operation that lasted over three hours, was quickly mounted. It involved the Irish Coast Guard, Clare County Fire and Rescue Service and National Ambulance Service.
Gardaí also attended the scene and carried out inquiries to establish the circumstances of the accident.
The Doolin unit of the Irish Coast Guard along with the Shannon-based search and rescue helicopter were initially tasked to the incident. Two units of the fire brigade from Ennistymon and ambulance resources from Ennistymon and Ennis were also sent to the scene.
Emergency services found the woman on rocks close to the water on the northern side of Spanish Point Bay near a popular hotel.
Coast Guard and fire service personnel climbed down to the base of the cliff to reach the woman. It is believed she suffered multiple injuries including fractures and a head trauma.
The Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 115, was requested to airlift the casualty from the scene.
The woman was assessed by an advanced paramedic before being secured and prepared for the helicopter airlift. She was flown to University Hospital Limerick for treatment.
The emergency services were stood down shortly before 7am in an operation that was coordinated by watch officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue sub-centre at Valentia in Kerry.
