A TEENAGE rock climber had to be rescued by fire crews after scaling 70ft up the south face of Arthur’s Seat.
The 16-year-old became stuck halfway up the cliff face and was clinging to rocks as he alerted rescuers on his mobile phone.
A single firefighter abseiled down Salisbury Crags and fixed a harness to the stranded youngster before lowering him to the ground.
Onlookers told how emergency services swarmed Holyrood Park at around 7pm last night. Gerard Flavin, 29, from Southside, was jogging through the park when he was overtaken by fire engines with their sirens blaring.
He said: “It was quite unsettling. I thought something major was happening. It seems that the guy was climbing the rock face when he became stuck.”
Commuters on their way home through the park crawled at walking pace in their cars as they watched the drama unfold high up on the cliffs.
Sarah Maxwell, 34, from Meadowbank, regularly walks through the park on her way home.
She said: “It’s a bit of drama. You see people climbing around the park all the time, he looks like he’s got a bit out of his depth though.”
There have been 11 incidents over the past five years involving firefighters rescuing stranded people.
A spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Service said: “We received a call just after 7pm from a 16-year-old male in distress on the cliff face. A line team was immediately deployed and an officer abseiled down to him. The firefighter placed a harness on the youth and then winched him to the ground.”
Earlier this year emergency crews blasted two men who risked their lives scaling Castle Rock.
The two men tried to climb the craggy volcanic outcrop in separate incidents in one weekend – one of the men was in his 60s, an amateur photographer seeking out a lofty vantage point.
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