This Is Guernsey

By Nick Mann

An Ambulance and Rescue team battle the waves in an effort to wade out to two teenagers stuck on a rock off the west coast yesterday. (Picture by Daniel Guerin, 0553841)

TWO 14-year-olds were last evening airlifted to safety from a wave-lashed rock off the west coast. The teenagers, a boy and a girl, made an emergency call on a mobile phone at about 4pm – almost three hours before high water. And they used the mobile to keep in touch with family members who rushed to Grandes Rocques along with the emergency services.

Two Ambulance and Rescue Service inshore boat crews were dispatched and one team tried to wade to the rock, which was 80-100 metres offshore. They had to abandon that attempt.The helicopter arrived on scene at 7.27pm and the winchman was lowered onto the rock, which was lit from land by floodlights and vehicle lights.

Despite operating close to the rock and in tricky winds, the helicopter crew got the pair on board and within minutes was heading to the airport, where an ambulance was waiting.