A woman has been rescued after the car she was driving got stuck teetering on the edge of a 300ft cliff at St Agnes Head in Cornwall for several hours.
The unnamed 56-year-old driver is believed to have had a road accident on Monday night and her car, which has a crushed roof, rolled towards the cliffs.
While the car inched closer to the water, all the injured woman could do was hope and pray for assistance, which did not arrive until she was spotted in the morning.
The rescue operation was further complicated by a member of the public who had got stranded trying to help the driver.
A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: "At 9.24am this morning Falmouth Coastguard received several 999 calls reporting a car over the cliff at St Agnes.
"Coastguard rescue teams from St Agnes and Newquay were sent to the scene, the Police and Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service were also requested to attend and a rescue helicopter from RAF Chivenor."
The woman was finally rescued at about 12.30pm on Tuesday, after a painstakingly slow and delicate operation, and flown by the RAF to Treliske Hospital in nearby Truro, where she is being assessed.
The spokesperson continued: "Coastguard Rescue Officers on scene were able to establish that the 56-year-old woman inside the car was injured but conscious and that the vehicle had gone over the cliff the previous day.
"The car was secured in place by the Coastguards and Fire and Rescue Officers and the woman was then extracted from the vehicle.
"The Coastguard Rescue Team winched the casualty up the cliff and she was transferred to Treliske Hospital, Truro by RAF helicopter."
A member of the public had tried to step down the cliff to help the woman and had also become stuck. They, too, were recovered by the emergency services.
Now, the coastguard is attempting to save the car from slipping and crashing on to the rocks below.
Mike Pulley, station manager at the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI), St Agnes Head, said the cliffs in the area where the car is trapped are 300ft (91.5m) high.
The 64-year-old said: "The cliffs round here have got quite a bit of a slope - they are not sheer cliffs - and that may well have saved this driver."
12:45am UK, Wednesday July 27, 2011
