Climber rescued after 30ft fall

An RAF Boulmer helicopter airlifted the injured man to hospital

A climber who fell 30ft onto rocks had to be airlifted to hospital with a suspected broken pelvis and fractures to his arm and ribs.

The incident happened at Hawk Craig Point, Aberdour, on Saturday at about 1400 GMT.

The 41-year-old climber was from the Bearsden area of Glasgow.

The joint rescue operation involved the RNLI lifeboat at Kinghorn, the ambulance service and a helicopter from RAF Boulmer in Northumberland.

The lifeboat arrived on the scene within 15 minutes.

Neil Chalmers, a member of the RNLI lifeboat at Kinghorn, said that when he and the team arrived on scene, they saw the injured man lying at the base of rocks.

Mr Chalmers added: "We ferried an ambulance paramedic to him and he remained conscious throughout his ordeal.

"It was obvious that he needed urgent medical treatment and given his remote position and the difficulty in extracting him safely, we decided to call for a helicopter.

"We had to move the casualty onto a spinal board and take him to above the high water mark, otherwise he would have been submerged."

The injured climber was taken by helicopter to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for treatment.