Warning after rescuers have 'busiest day of year'

Rescuers have urged people to stay safe near the water after the coastguard had its "busiest day of the year" in Cornwall.

Falmouth Coastguard said rescue teams were sent out 14 times alongside a number of lifeboat taskings.

It said in one incident an elderly woman suffered a broken leg on a coast path on the Lizard which took "some time" to deal with.

Paddy Corcoran, from HM Coastguard, said rescuers also dealt with a number of paddleboarders in difficulty.

He said jobs included 12 lifeboat taskings, 14 coastguard deployments, six helicopter deployments and two jobs involving lifeguards.

"We've been very, very busy over the last 24 hours," he said.

"You name it, we did it.

"We have about 50 incident types and I'm pretty sure we hit over half of them over the last 24 hours."

Mr Corcoran said rescuers also dealt with boats losing power, medical issues in the Isles of Scilly and paddleboarders getting into difficulty.

He urged paddleboard users to "exercise caution" in unfamiliar conditions.

"We had a number of people who headed out on a paddleboard and then found they couldn't make their way back to shore or really had to work hard to get back," he said.

"Please, if you are getting out on a paddleboard understand the conditions, ask somebody local if you're not from the area, and only ever paddleboard in a lifeguarded area."

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