THE COAST GUARD was called to rescue an angler overnight, with the rescue taking eight hours.
Last night at around 9pm, gardaí in Clifden, Galway contacted Coast Guard Operations staff at Mailn Head to alert them of an angler overdue from a fishing trip on Joyce’s River.
The angler’s colleagues were reportedly concerned for his safety after he had not returned.
Coast Guard Rescue Units from Cleggan and Westport and Galway Mountain Rescue were tasked along with Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue 118.
Before midnight, the ground search teams were able to see the man on the other side of a flooded river.
However, Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter 118 had to abort the rescue mission due to severe winds gusts and was forced to return to Sligo.
At 3am the Coast Guard and Mountain Rescue team reached the man.
They successfully extracted him by stretcher over difficult terrain in force 8 winds.
Finally, at 5am, the man was handed over to ambulance paramedics and rescue teams were released to return to base.
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