A MAN has been seriously injured after falling approximately 15m down a riverbank.

The incident happened in the boulder field at the bottom of New Wath Scar, near Goathland, at around 1.35pm yesterday. The gentleman sustained a head injury and was unconscious in the stream.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Yorkshire Hazardous Area Response Team (HART), Yorkshire Air Ambulance, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, North Yorkshire Police and Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue (SRMRT) were all involved in the rescue.

He was airlifted to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

A spokesperson from SRMRT said: “After initial treatment on the stream bank by Yorkshire Ambulance Service and the Fire and Rescue Service, the gentleman was loaded onto one of our Bell Stetchers, evacuated from the gorge and carried a distance upstream by ourselves and officers from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service to the waiting Yorkshire Air Ambulance. 

“He was then flown to definitive medical care. Our thoughts are with the gentleman and his family.”

A spokesperson from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service added: “Crews from Goathland, Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay and Malton attended an incident where a person had fallen around 15m and banged their head on the way down.

“Crews carried out first aid and assisted with the moving of the casualty from the bank side. They were handed to the care of air ambulance doctors.”