A nine-year-old boy who was rescued from the sea after apparently falling from rocks on the Kent coast has died in hospital.
The child, who has not been named, was treated at the scene in the village of Dymchurch by paramedics after being pulled out of the water by a member of the public on Tuesday afternoon.
The passerby then also got into difficulties and was trapped on the rocks, having to be rescued by lifeboat crew, but he sustained only cuts and bruises, according to volunteer lifeboat rescuers.
The boy was taken to hospital in Ashford where medics continued efforts to revive him but he died overnight, police confirmed.
“A nine-year-old boy who was involved in an incident in Dymchurch yesterday, sadly died at the William Harvey hospital last night,” a Kent police spokesman said. His death is not being treated as suspicious.
Littlestone RNLI’s volunteer crew were called from their base five miles away to help rescue the passerby who had been attempting to save the nine-year-old, the lifeboat station said in a post on Facebook. “It is with heavy hearts that we have been informed a young boy of nine died during the night in hospital. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this very sad time.”
Charlie Davies, operations manager of the RNLI station, told the Guardian his crew had not had to deal with such a serious incident in more than 20 years.
“When my crew arrived they could see a person on the rocks, who had to be rescued, and paramedics working on the young boy,” he said. “Two of the three crew members left the boat to assist the paramedics, as one of them is a trained community first responder.
“As far as we know, this passerby just went in and grabbed the lad to try to save him, while someone else called the emergency services.”
Davies said the passerby was a local walker not related to the boy, and had not wanted to be taken to hospital, describing him as “shaken up” by the traumatic attempted rescue. Sea conditions were calm, Davies said, and it was unclear how the boy had got into difficulties in the water.
“It is a terribly sad incident, and it does not happen often that we have a fatal result after a rescue.”
Kent air ambulance was also called to assist just after 1pm on Tuesday by South East Coast ambulance service, but the boy was eventually taken to hospital by road so doctors could treat him en route.
