This is the dramatic moment a man was saved from certain death on Scottish cliffs earlier this week.
The victim was stuck on the vertical rock face at Seaton Cliffs, in Arbroath, and was rescued from a ‘desperate situation.’
The HM Coastguard heroes who hauled him to safety said he was “a finger’s grip away from plunging to almost certain death.”
And dramatic night vision film taken from a helicopter showed the rescue play out in real time.
A spokesman told how mercy crews rushed to the Angus town after the man’s pal called 999.
He was about 10 metres from the top of the cliffs that are about 200- feet high in places.
The spokesman said it was a race against time and revealed that eams from Arbroath, Dundee and Stonehaven were sent to the scene at Dickmont’s Den, alongside the RNLI Arbroath lifeboats and the search and rescue helicopter from Inverness.
They added that the team “found a cold and tired man in a desperate situation, a finger’s grip away from plunging to almost certain death.”
A helicopter rescue was quickly deemed too dangerous due to the downdraft, which could have had enough force to dislodge the man from his position, and so the teams geared up to carry out a technical rope rescue.
David Kerr, Senior Coastal Operations Officer, said: “It was a close call – he was struggling to hold on, and it was a long way to fall. The teams knew they had to get to him and quickly. It was a tough rope rescue in darkness on a steep and crumbling cliff.
“It goes to show how quickly a nice winter walk can turn sour, one decision and suddenly the man found himself gripping on for life. It really can happen that easily and to anyone.
“They were well prepared with the right gear and fully charged mobile phones – they did the right thing in calling for help.
"The cliffs in that area are particularly loose and it can be very easy to end up in a difficult situation. So we do ask people to stay well back, the cliffs around the UK are continually eroding and can become unsteady at any time."
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