City gripped by morning rescue operation

Palma emergency services were involved in a dramatic rescue operation yesterday morning right in the city centre. The alarm was raised after a 39-year-old woman fell in to the sa Riera waterway, which runs into the sea splitting the Paseo Mallorca in two, from the Sa Faixina bridge. The accident happened just after 8.30 am and residents in Santa Catalina called the police to report that the woman had fallen some ten metres in to the waterway and landed on hard concrete. An emergency operation was mounted immediately and first at the scene were firemen from the sa Teulera fire station. Firemen found the woman near one of the stone pillars, in great pain but still conscious. The rescue was a complicated one and it took the emergency services some 45 minutes to finally transfer the woman to hospital. An ambulance had to enter the waterway at the entrance where sa Riera meets the sea while paramedics attended the victim at the scene. Once in a stretcher she had to be carefully carried along the water way to the awaiting ambulance which then rushed her to Son Dureta hospital. Doctors reported that she suffered a variety of fractures and bruising to her whole body, but the 39-year-old's life was not in any danger. The rescue operation was watched by hundreds of passers by and the Local Police are to mount a full investigation into exactly what happened. As soon as the victim has recovered, they will be interviewing her in hospital along with a number of eye witnesses.