Man helped by emergency services after cliff incident

The incident happened at 4.10pm today near to the Seaham Coastguard Station off North Road in Seaham.

Sunderland Coastguard joined their colleagues from Seaham, County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, Durham Constabulary and the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) following the alert.

A spokesman for NEAS said it was called to a report a man had fallen at the cliff near to Dene House Road and was unconscious with a leg injury.

The service sent an ambulance and a Hazardous Area Response Team (Hart) to the scene, but called of air support when its medics arrived and assessed the incident.

The man was taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital's A&E department.

Sunderland Coastguard Rescue Team's spokesman said: "We were cancelled while en route as it was reported that the casualty was in the care of Hart with no further assistance being required.

"Incident not believed as serious as first thought."