Young man injured after 'tombstoning' off jagged cliff in Torquay

A young man has been injured after ‘tombstoning’ from notorious rocks in Torquay.

Emergency services including HM Coastguard’s Torbay and Berryhead Coastguard Rescue Teams, Torbay RNLI lifeboat, South West Ambulance Service, and HART (Hazardous Area Response Team) were called to the incident near the Imperial Hotel at 3.30pm on Saturday 9 July.

He suffered a suspected leg injury after plummeting into the sea from a jagged cliff.

A video showed a large group of youngsters standing on the edge of the cliff before plummeting below.A witness who took the video said: “It looked very dangerous. The noise when they hit the water was very loud. And some of them looked very close to the rocks on the way down.”

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A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesperson said: “At approx. 3.30pm today, HM Coastguard’s Torbay and Berryhead Coastguard Rescue Teams, Torbay RNLI lifeboat, South West Ambulance Service, and HART were sent to assist a casualty with a suspected leg injury on the coast of Torquay.

"The casualty was brought from a less accessible part of the beach by the lifeboat and passed into the care of the ambulance service.”A spokesperson for HM Coastguard Area Commander for South Devon & South-East Cornwall Coastline confirmed that the tombstoning teenagers and the injured casualty were linked: “A young man [was] evacuated from Imperial Ledge following an injury sustained whilst tombstoning this afternoon.”The Coastguard recently issued a warning labelling tombstoning a potentially deadly activity that “ruins lives” after a man was seriously injured during a Torquay cliff fall in 2019.