Search for sunrise ends in cliff plunge drama

A MAN who fell over 30ft down a cliff in Cheddar Gorge has been left with a dislocated elbow, broken arm and may need surgery. Marcus Cook, a 30-year-old man from Salisbury, was left lying 20ft up on a bed of shingle at Frenchman's Pinnacle when emergency services were called out at 9am on Saturday (March 24) to rescue him.Marcus had been with a group of about eight friends who had driven down from their home through the night. When they arrived in Cheddar in the morning they decided to climb up the gorge to watch the sunrise. The friends followed the footpath up the side of the gorge to Frenchman's Pinnacle and walked along the top, following the sun. Avon and Somerset Search and Rescue Team's cliff rescue chairman Duncan Massey said: "They were just a group of friends having a laugh. They were helping each other down onto a ledge when Marcus slipped and tumbled over the edge onto the landslip. He must have fallen 30 or 40ft. "He dislocated his elbow, broke his arm, and had cuts on his arms and legs where he had waved them about to stop himself."Ambulance crews were called to the scene and started to help Marcus. When the cliff rescue team arrived he was put onto a vacuum mattress. Air was let out so the mattress shrunk and formed a cast around his body. He was then put on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to Weston General Hospital.