Emergency services faced a race against time to save a man trapped in a car that had plunged off a cliff.
During the dramatic rescue, responders descended cliffs at Frenchman's Bay, in South Shields , to free the man from the partially submerged vehicle.
Firefighters took cutting equipment down the cliff by rope to rescue the casualty before he was transferred by lifeboat to South Shields Ferry Terminal.
Paramedics then took him by ambulance to South Tyneside accident and emergency - his condition is currently unknown.
Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service (TWFRS) sent two crews from South Shields Community Fire Station and crews from Hebburn and Marley Park Community Fire Stations to the scene.
Three rope rescue operators, two paramedics and rescuers from the South Shields Voluntary Life Brigade (SSVLB) were involved in the resuce.
TWFRS station manager Chris Lane said it was a complex situation for all the services attending.
He added: "The vehicle’s location and the rising tide made this a challenging and time critical rescue.
"There is no doubt that the professionalism and collaborative work between ourselves, North East Ambulance Service, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, SSVLB and Northumbria Police delivered a successful outcome.
"We very much hope that the casualty will make a full recovery."
A spokesperson for SSVLB said: "As the fire service used their rope rescue equipment to transfer cutting equipment down the cliff our technicians took two HART team members down to the cliff base.
"The casualty was taken via inshore lifeboat and transferred to the all weather Lifeboat, the hazardous area response team (HART) team and fire service members were taken on the inshore lifeboat, the HART team were transferred to the all weather Lifeboat to travel with the casualty.
"When all persons were clear from the cliff base we recovered our technicians."
Simon Swallow, head of resilience at NEAS, added: “Although this is the kind of incident that our Hart teams are trained to deal with, clearly the two paramedics showed real professionalism and courage in rescuing the patient as the tide was coming in.
“Thanks to help from all our emergency service colleagues, we were able to get the patient from the scene and on to hospital.”
