A FISHERMAN has died after being swept out to sea from rocks in North Cornwall.
The man was fishing off rocks at Penhallick Point, between Trebarwith Strand and Tintagel, when the accident happened just before 2pm on Tuesday afternoon.
Falmouth coastguard said the alarm was raised by a friend who had been with the man, believed to be a holidaymaker.
The man, said to be in his fifties and from Shropshire, was retrieved from the sea by a Search and Rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose and flown to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, Truro, where he was declared dead.
Cliff rescue teams from Boscastle and Port Isaac and the Port Isaac inshore lifeboat were also involved in the operation at the scene, which is reached from a cliff path at St Materiana Church, Tintagel, and then a descent down cliffs near the Tintagel Youth Hostel.
The friend, who is believed to be local, ran to lifesaving apparatus nearby and threw a buoy to the man in trouble, but he had been unable to reach it, coastguards said.
A spokesman said: "The man was washed off the rocks and his friend made every effort to save him. It took 22 minutes to get up to Tintagel and when we arrived we could see right away that he was unconscious in the water.
"It took just two minutes to winch him into the helicopter and then we headed for Treliske."
Just three weeks ago a mother and her two sons were saved by Ashley Sharp, a bar manager at a local pub, when they got into difficulties in the sea at nearby Trebarwith Strand.