A 15-YEAR-OLD boy was airlifted to hospital with serious leg injuries following a fall from cliffs at Frenchman’s Bay, near Marsden, in South Shields, tonight (Thursday, July 18).

A spokesman for the Humber Coastguard said, the Tyne inshore lifeboat, Sunderland Coastguard and South Shields volunteer Life Brigade along with all emergency services were deployed to the incident.

The alarm was raised by passers-by who made an emergency call just after 6.50pm after they heard the youth screaming for help.

The boy had fallen about 60ft from the cliff top and landed on sharp rocks below, severely breaking his left leg.

Tynemouth RNLI’s inshore lifeboat with three volunteer crew launched and sped to the scene, as an RAF Sea King helicopter from RAF Boulmer was also scrambled.

Arriving at the scene the lifeboat crew, helped by members of the South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade who were at the cliff top, located the boy and assessed his condition - finding that he had a compound fracture of his leg which was bleeding.

The RAF winchman, a trained Paramedic, was lowered to the beach where he gave the boy a painkilling sedative.

Once the casualty was placed in a stretcher, he was winched into the helicopter and taken to Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary for treatment.