A man has died and a second person has been rescued from the sea following an incident in west Co Clare on Wednesday.
The alarm was raised at about 3.15pm when emergency services received a report that a person had fallen into the sea from a cliff at Dunlicky, near Kilkee.
It is understood that the deceased, aged in his 50s, was fishing with another man at the time.
A passerby who witnessed the incident called emergency services, and a search and rescue operation was mounted by officers from the Irish Coast Guard. The Kilkee unit of the Irish Coast Guard was tasked to the scene along with the Shannon-based Rescue 115 helicopter.
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The helicopter carried out a search of the area and soon located the man and removed him from the water. However, efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was removed to University Hospital Kerry in Tralee where a postmortem is to be carried out.
A Garda spokesman said: “Gardaí and emergency services attended an incident at Kilkee Cliff Walk in Co Clare this afternoon. A man aged in his 50s was removed from the water by the Coast Guard.”
A second person, who was believed to have climbed down on to the rocks to help the casualty, was found stranded on a cliff edge and unable to climb back to safety. He was spotted by the helicopter crew who alerted ground teams and the man was later taken to safety.