A woman has been airlifted to hospital after she was pulled from the Shannon Estuary in north Kerry this afternoon.
The alarm was raised at around 2.00pm when a person was reported to be in the water off Carrig Island north of Ballylongford.
Watch officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue sub centre on Valentia Island in Kerry mounted a major rescue operation.
The Ballybunion unit of the Irish Coast Guard and Ballybunion CRBI team were immediately tasked to the incident along with the Shannon based search and rescue helicopter.
The Kilrush RNLI lifeboat raced across the estuary from its base in Co Clare while Gardaí, National Ambulance Service and Kerry Fire and Rescue Service crews were also dispatched to the scene.
It’s understood that a person on the shore pulled the woman from the water and began CPR. On arrival at the scene, two RNLI volunteers were sent ashore and took over efforts to resuscitate the woman.
In the meantime, Rescue 115 landed on the nearby beach and dropped its paramedics who then began to care for the casualty. Emergency crews assisted with carrying the woman to the helicopter before she was airlifted to hospital in Tralee.
Details of the woman’s condition are not known while the circumstances of the incident are not clear. It’s understood the woman may have suffered a fall from rocks.
Late last month, just a few kilometres from the scene of todays incident, a 5-year-old girl was rescued after she drifted more than a kilometre offshore on an inflatable toy .
The girl had been enjoying a day at Littor Strand with her family when currents pushed her lilo out in to the Shannon Estuary. She was rescued by the crew of Rescue 115 and the Kilrush RNLI lifeboat and flown to hospital in Tralee.