A man who fell overboard from a ship off the North East coast on Monday (September 26) afternoon has been rushed to hospital after lifeboat crews went to his rescue.

Lifeboat volunteers responded to the Mayday call shortly after 2pm when a seaman fell from a ship into the sea while being transferred to a transfer vessel.

The Hartlepool RNLI was called out at 2.03pm on Monday afternoon and was alongside the transfer vessel off Blackhall around 10 minutes later, to find a man had been recovered from the water by the crew who were administering casualty care.

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The two boats then moved into calmer waters in the Hartlepool channel to allow two volunteer lifeboat crew onto the transfer vessel to help look after the man.

Ambulance and air ambulance crews were waiting on scene at Hartlepool lifeboat station on the boats’ return and took the man to hospital.

Hartlepool RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager Chris Hornsey said: "Once again a quick response from the volunteer crew meant we were heading out to sea in a matter of minutes and working alongside the other agencies involved is something we train for on a regular basis".

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A spokesperson for the North East Ambulance Service said: "We received a call at 2.15pm this afternoon.

"We assisted the RNLI with the rescue of a patient on arrival back at the lifeboat station in Hartlepool.

"We dispatched the air ambulance, our crews and a clinical team leader and we took the patient to James Cook Hospital."

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