An eyewitness has described a dramatic operation to safely transport a man across a river after he had a 'medical episode' on an island.
The man, believed to be in his 60s, had to rescued by the Coastguard after reports he had suffered a cardiac arrest on Thorpe Island in Thorpe St Andrew.
Coastguard teams from Winterton and Gorleston, along with police and fire crews, were called to Thorpe River Green in Yarmouth Road by the ambulance service at 9.08am, after reports that the patient could not be not be reached.
He was taken by boat onto the mainland where he received medical attention, before being taken to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in an ambulance.
A resident who lives on the island, who did not want to be named, spoke of her concern for the man and said: 'This morning a man in his 60s who has cancer and heart issues stopped breathing and needed to be resuscitated a couple of times.
'He was breathing and had a pulse when he was taken in the ambulance but the Coastgaurd needed to get him across the water safely.
'We're all really worried about him because he's been on the island for such a long time.'
The police and a fire crew from Earlham as well as the swift water rescue team from Carrow also attended the scene to assist with traffic control.
The resident said: 'Everyone had it under control, I'm just not sure that he is going to be well enough to come back onto the island sadly.
'The emergency services being able to reach people on the island is a problem, but it's very rare that something happens.'
A spokesman from the Coastguard said: 'We were called by the ambulance after a male suffered a medical episode.
'We were called as he was difficult to extract as the area he was in was an island.
'The coastguard rescue helicopter attended but were stood down when the casualty was taken to hospital.'
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