Man gets stuck up cliff after fleeing angry seals

A man has been rescued from a cliff face in darkness after he was forced to flee a colony of aggressive seals.

Around 50 of the mammals and their young pups turned on the angler as he walked along the beach near Eyemouth on Friday.

He scrambled up the cliff face in Green Stane in the Scottish Borders, but got trapped about three-quarters of the way up.

Emergency services called to the scene at about 7.40pm used rope rescue techniques to lower a coastguard officer 75ft to where the man was stuck on the cliff face.

An RNLI lifeboat waiting offshore then managed to nip in amid the seals to reach the angler and cliff technician, before taking them to Eyemouth Harbour.

Senior Coastguard operations officer Jonathan Mustard said: “Anyone who encounters a seal or a colony of seals on the beach or coastline is advised to move away at the first sign of agitation.

“Aggressive seals are not a common occurrence and in this case they may have been protecting or defending their natural habitat and their young.

“Remember to take a fully charged mobile when walking on the coast and call 999 and ask for the Coastguard if you get into difficulty."