A 11-year-old girl has died in hospital after falling from a cliff in Cornwall.
The girl, who was on holiday with her family from Hampshire fell through a gap into a water-filled cave near Droskin point, on Perranporth beach, yesterday afternoon. She is believed to have fallen around 4.5 metres as she climbed around an adit, an entrance to a mine, some of which are exposed at low tide.
Emergency services were alerted at about 1.15pm. A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police said: "A PCSO [police community support officer] was quickly in attendance along with beach lifeguards before further help from the other emergency services arrived."
Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeguards, assisted by others on the beach, managed to pull the girl out of the shaft. She was not breathing and an off-duty paramedic began resuscitation. She was airlifted to Treliske Hospital in a critical condition but died yesterday evening.
The RNLI said the beach was packed at the time of the incident. It rescued more than 20 people yesterday, including many caught in a rip current.
Devon and Cornwall police said the incident was not being treated as suspicious and a file was being prepared for the coroner.
