A MAN found clinging on halfway down a 330 foot-high cliff on Portland has been plucked to safety.

His desperate cries for help were heard by a couple walking on the clifftop at West Weare, a coastguard spokesman said.

Coastguards, including the cliff rescue team and a helicopter crew, spent nearly an hour stabilising his ‘severe ankle injuries’ on a ‘precarious position’.

The man, 29, who is Hungarian but lives and works on Portland, was flown to the Dorset County Hospital by the coastguard helicopter during the rescue on Saturday.

Jim Power, watch officer for Portland Coastguard, said: “The couple heard him calling for help at around 2pm and looked down.

“They thought he was sunbathing to begin with then they realised he was in difficulties and called 999.

“Our coastguard helicopter, which had just taken off to go training, whizzed back and found him pretty quickly, within three minutes.”

Six Portland Bill coastguards attended the incident. Two members from the Wyke Coastguard rescue team also responded and headed to the hospital in Dorchester.

Portland coastguard’s Whiskey Bravo helicopter winched down a paramedic-trained crewman who stayed with the victim on the cliff side for 50 minutes to make him stable.

Mr Power said: “The chap had suffered severe ankle injuries and lost some blood.

“He had a mobile phone with him but couldn’t use it because he was hanging on.

“It was quite a steep cliff face and a difficult job for the winchman to keep him there and work on him at the same time.”

Mr Power said they did not know how the Hungarian man had ended up clinging to the side of the 328ft (100m) cliff face.

He said: “He might have slipped off the path which goes around the island, the old railway track.

“He was dressed in swimming shorts so he may have gone swimming and then tried to climb up and slipped.

“There were quite a lot of people involved in the rescue and it was a very good reaction from all involved.”

It is thought that man suffered two broken ankles.

Witness Keith Peckover, of Augusta Road, Portland, said: “Whilst walking along the cliff on the east side of Portland I became aware that the rescue helicopter was hovering on the other side of the island.

“Having for a long time been wanting to get photographs of Whiskey Bravo in action I made my way out to the cliff opposite the Tradecroft Industrial Estate to see a man who had the misfortune to go over the edge.

“He was being tended to by a member of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency cliff rescue team and by a Whiskey Bravo winchman.

“This was the first time I had seen either team in action and it demonstrates their importance to the area.

“The short reaction time was possible with the rescue helicopter being based here.”

Diver Steve Evans of Gryphon Watersports in Telford was on a week’s holiday on Portland when he saw the helicopter rescue.

He said: “It was interesting to watch, it hovered over the man for almost an hour.

“We thought it was a practice at first.

“We could see a few people looking down from the top and then we saw the helicopter winch someone up and fly away.”

Abseiler saved after slip on rocks

A TEENAGE girl was flown to hospital yesterday after slipping on cliffs in Portland.

Coastguards believe she and two friends were abseiling down the cliff in Blacknor when her ankle got caught.

It is thought that she kept on descending, causing injuries to her ankle and knee.

The 18-year-old, from north Wales, was flown to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester at 4pm with a suspected broken ankle and injured knee.