A woman believed to be in her 20s has suffered a serious head injury after falling about 17 metres while abseiling at Mount Maunganui.
Emergency services and police were called to a climbing wall on the northern face at about 7.30 last night.
St John told 1 NEWS the woman was taken to Tauranga Hospital in a critical condition.
Mount Maunganui Fire Brigade station officer Roger Prickett said she was quite a way up the wall, nearly at the top when she fell.
“She fell and landed on the rocks at the bottom, hit her head and went flying across around the northface of the Mount," he said. "Luckily, she was hooked up in some trees. That potentially saved her from falling further.”
Mr Prickett said the woman was already in a stoke basket stretcher being assessed by St John when his crew arrived.
Two Mount Maunganui lifeguards were also there and took the firefighters to where she fell.
Mr Prickett said they assisted them in carrying the woman down to the ambulance.
There were others climbing with her at the time.
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