RESCUERS spoke of their amazement yesterday after two men escaped with only minor injuries when their car plunged over a 400ft cliff.

The driver of the BMW, which left the A165 coast road and went over the cliff top near Cayton Bay, south of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, had to be lifted to safety by an RAF helicopter after emergency services launched a full-scale rescue operation.

Police, fire crews, the coastguard and the North York Moors search and rescue team were involved in the dramatic operation at Osgodby Point in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The passenger managed to leap out of the car before it careered over the edge, but rescuers used a thermal imaging camera to locate the driver in the undergrowth. The man, in his twenties, is thought to have wandered away from where the car came to rest.

He was eventually discovered about 300ft down the cliff. An Air Sea Rescue helicopter from RAF Leconfield was needed to winch him to safety on a stretcher.

Assistant divisional officer Tony Dyer, of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "This man is very lucky to be alive. By wandering away from the scene of the accident he made the task of locating him very difficult indeed.

"In addition to the original danger he may have, in his confused state, lost his footing and fallen to the bottom of the cliff. Also, his position was partly masked from the thermal imaging equipment by the dense undergrowth on the cliff side."

The driver was found at about 1.30am, suffering head and facial injuries, shock and hypothermia. Both casualties were recovering in Scarborough District Hospital yesterday.

Their injuries were said to be not serious.