A BADLY injured woman was rescued from the foot of cliffs at Eyemouth yesterday morning after falling down the previous night.

The 33-year-old was winched to safety by RAF Rescue Helicopter 131 from Boulmer in a rescue that was co-ordinated by Forth Coastguard. She was taken to hospital in Edinburgh.

The alarm was raised by a dog walker who heard a call for help just before 6.30am.

Coastguard Rescue teams from Eyemouth and Dunbar were sent to Killie Draughts at Eyemouth, where they found the woman. She had suffered serious head and leg injuries after falling down the cliff at 10pm the night before.

Forth Coastguard Watch Officer Stephen Foley said: “This is one lucky lady. Thankfully the weather overnight was quite warm and this probably helped save her life.”

He also issued a warning to others, saying: “If you are walking near cliffs, particularly if its dark, please use a torch so you can follow the path and stay well away from the edge.”

Meanwhile, eight of the coastguard officers involved in the cliff-bottom rescue later found themselves in need of help as a result of the fast-incoming tide.

It was decided to recover the coastguards, who were from the Eyemouth and Dunbar rescue teams, by RNLI Lifeboat rather than winching them all off as this could have been too time-consuming.

The St Abbs RNLI Inshore Lifeboat was launched just before 9am after the Lifeboat Operations Manager received a call from Forth Coastguard reporting that the eight coastguard officers needed help.

The RNLI volunteer crew launched immediately and went straight to their assistance. Once on the scene the lifeboat crew took on board four officers and brought them round to Eyemouth harbour. The lifeboat returned to bring back the remaining four officers.

St Abbs RNLI lifeboat crew was thanked for its attendance and the boat was then released to return to station an hour after the initial call.