North York Moors waterfall tombstoning rescue takes four hours

Emergency crews took almost four hours to rescue a man injured after tombstoning from a waterfall in the North York Moors.

The man suffered spinal injuries falling from Thomason Foss waterfall, near Goathland, on Sunday, according to the county's fire service.

He was eventually taken to Hull Royal Infirmary by helicopter.

The incident at the beauty spot comes after concerns about the number of people "partying" at the site.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to the incident at about 16:45 BST.

"The crew from Goathland were flagged down to assist a male who had sustained suspected spinal injuries having fallen from the top of a waterfall into a shallow pool," a spokesperson said.

The Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team, North Yorkshire Police, the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance were also called to assist in the rescue operation.

A spokesperson for the mountain rescue team said: "Thomason Foss, a steep-sided valley, is particularly difficult to extract a casualty from and in light of the suspected injuries we requested the assistance of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency helicopter from Humberside Airport."

"Our team had 27 team members deployed for three and three quarter hours in appropriate Covid-19 PPE."

The rescue operation came after a fire officer had earlier expressed concerns about the number of people "partying" at the waterfall over the weekend.

On Sunday tombstoning continued on Dorset's Jurassic Coast less than 24 hours after three people were seriously hurt jumping 70ft (21m) from a cliff.

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