Two swimmers rescued from water near Falmouth


Two people have been rescued from the water at Castle Beach, Cornwall.

A 999 call came into Falmouth Coastguard Operations Centre at 10:40 yesterday (26th September) The caller could see two swimmers in difficulty and drifting out to sea off Castle Beach.

Richie Williams (Left) Marc Thomas (Right)

The beach is only 300 metres from one of the UK's nationwide Coastguard bases and it meant that help was with the swimmers within 10 minutes of the initial 999 call.  The people were about 30 metres off shore and being dragged out by the currents but thankfully they were quickly rescued from the choppy waters by Senior Coastal Operations Officers, Marc Thomas and Richie Williams who were first to arrive.


Marc entered the water, secured by safety lines to his colleague Richie who was providing shore support, in a rescue technique that all coastguard teams are trained in.  Marc swam out and reached the people and all three were then pulled back safely to shore by Richie.  


Marc said, 'I was in the office at Falmouth and saw the call come in. Richie and I went to the scene and were there within 10 minutes and we could see the people drifting and clinging to a lifebuoy. We were able to make a fast rescue and we were delighted to see the people again when they popped in to say thank you to us and all our emergency services colleagues.'

'We're really grateful to all the emergency services teams who were there too.  The situation could have easily and quickly been quite different and we all work together as one team, always aiming for the best possible outcome,' he added.

A multi-agency response was sent to help including: Falmouth Coastguard Rescue Team, the Coastguard Search and Rescue helicopter from Newquay, Falmouth RNLI Lifeboat, South West Ambulance Service and Devon and Cornwall Police. The people were taken into the care of the ambulance service. They called into the Falmouth Coastguard base yesterday afternoon to say thank you. 

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