A missing woman has been found and airlifted to safety in a joint rescue mission carried out in rough seas off the south Pembrokeshire coast by Tenby RNLI, coastguards and Coastguard Rescue Helicoper 187.

The drama unfolded yesterday (Wednesday) morning, when Tenby's all-weather lifeboat, the Haydn Miller, was requested to launch by the coastguard at 10.45am, following a report from the police that a person was missing in the Skrinkle area, near Manorbier.

The lifeboat made best speed towards Skrinkle and began a search of the area.

Once it was decided that conditions were safe enough, the Tenby inshore lifeboat was launched to join the search.

As it arrived at the scene, the coastguard cliff team spotted the casualty in a small cove at the base of a 100ft+ cliff.

The inshore lifeboat went into the cove in between waves and dropped off three crew members to assess the best way of extracting the casualty.

In the meantime, the coastguard helicopter from St Athan was tasked to provide assistance, with the cliff team preparing to send a technician down from the top of the cliff.

Said an RNLI spokesman: "Due to the increasing swell going into the cove, it was decided that a sea extraction was too dangerous.

"Once Rescue 187 arrived on scene, they decided that, due to the small dimensions of the cove and many loose stones above, it was unsafe for them to try to winch the casualty and crew up.

"The only option left was to take everyone up by rope.

"Both lifeboats then stood by and provided safety cover, whilst the three lifeboat crew members and cliff rescue technician were winched up to the top of the cliff, before the helicopter recovered the casualty."

All the units were then stood down, with the lifeboats returning to Tenby at 3.30pm.

Updatd: see http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/15116722.Second_death_in_Manorbier_area_in_five_days/