German tourist (14) airlifted after falling off cliff in Co Clare

Boy fell at Loop Head while walking with parents

A teenage boy is recovering in hospital with suspected broken legs and other injuries after he fell from a cliff in Co Clare on Saturday.

The 14-year-old lay injured at the base of the cliff for almost two hours before he could be safely airlifted from the scene.

Understood to be German, he had been visiting the picturesque Bridges of Ross on the Loop Head Peninsula with his parents when the accident occurred.

The boy had been walking on the cliff edge when he lost his footing and fell about 10m (32ft).

READ MORE

The alarm was raised at around 9.30am when a call was made to the 999/112 emergency call answering service (ECAS) reporting that a person had fallen from a cliff.

Coordinators mounted a search and rescue operation quickly alerting the Kilkee unit of the service while the search and rescue helicopter — Rescue 115 — was scrambled from its base at Shannon Airport.

Gardaí­ and an ambulance from Kilrush were also alerted and sent to the scene.Rescue teams from Kilkee reached the scene, about 20kms from their base, and quickly located the casualty. Volunteers used smoke canisters mark the location for the incoming helicopter.

Unable to reach the casualty, search teams had to wait for the helicopter so that they could be winched down to the ledge. Volunteers spoke with the casualty from the cliff top reassuring him all the time.

Coast Guard personnel and a HSE paramedic were lowered down to the casualty to stabilise him before he was taken on board the helicopter.

After laying injured on a ledge for almost two hours, the boy was airlifted to University Hospital Limerick (UHL) for treatment.

Its understood that the teen has suffered multiple injuries including suspected broken legs, a head wound and broken ribs.