The Port
Talbot lifeboat was requested to launch and was taken by road to the
river due to the lack of water at the river mouth. The South Wales
Police helicopter (WO99) also assisted the operation.Local Police
attempts to talk the man down failed, and he jumped head first off
the bridge from a point approx 90 ft high into the water.
Amazingly the man resurfaced and swam to the bank where he was
attended to by the rescue teams present before being evacuated by
helicopter to hospital. He was later found to have suffered only
minor injuries.
A spokesman for Swansea Coastguard said: "It's a long way
down but he swam to the side and pulled himself from the water.
"When the tide is at its highest the clearance between the
water and bridge is 27 metres. But the tide was out and on a spring
tide it would have gone out further so there would have been even
less water in there."
A member of one of the coastguard rescue teams said that this was
yet another example of different emergency services working well
together.
