Quick-thinking police officers saved a holidaymaker from the freezing sea in Whitby during an early morning rescue operation.
North Yorkshire Police were alerted at around 1.50am on Monday 30 January 2012 after receiving a call from a 39-year-old woman from Middlesbrough, who was in distress and threatening to jump from the West Pier.
Officers raced to the scene and as they approached the woman, who was now standing near the lighthouse, she fell from the pier into the water.
An officer ran to the emergency life ring and threw it to the woman who managed to climb inside it and was pulled back towards the harbour wall.
As 3ft waves broke over the woman’s head, the Whitby inshore lifeboat pulled her semi-conscious from the sea.
A waiting ambulance took her to Scarborough Hospital where she was treated for exposure to the cold, water inhalation and various cuts and bruises.
Sergeant John Webb, of Whitby police, said:
Thanks to the quick response from the officers involved and the lifeboat crew, the woman was rescued from the water before she came to any serious harm.
The swift actions of the people involved more than likely saved her life and she is expected to make a full recovery from her ordeal.
The woman remains in Scarborough Hospital where her condition is described as stable.
