A major rescue operation was launched in the Firth of Forth in the early hours of Thursday morning after a woman was spotted in the water.
Emergency services including police, fire crews, ambulance personnel, lifeboat crews and Coastguard teams were all involved following a report of concern for a person at Kirkcaldy Esplanade.
HM Coastguard were contacted by police shortly after 5am and tasked Coastguard teams from Kinghorn, Leven and South Queensferry to assist, also calling upon the RNLI lifeboat crews from Kinghorn, Queensferry and Anstruther as the incident unfolded.
Kinghorn lifeboat was the first of those three vessels on the scene, but it is understood that members of the Leven Coastguard team had quickly located a 19-year-old woman at the water’s edge and managed to pull her out.
She was briefly treated at the scene by paramedics and was taken to Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital in a waiting ambulance.
Her condition is not known but a spokesperson for HM Coastguard confirmed the casualty was alive and is expected to make a full recovery.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Officers received a report of concern for a 19-year-old woman at 5am on Thursday December 10, 2020.
“The woman was later traced at the Promenade in Kirkcaldy.
“Emergency services attended and the woman was rescued from the water and taken to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.”
The early morning drama woke many locals living in or around the seafront area from their slumber, with the Coastguard helicopter from Prestwick also called at one stage to assist in the rescue operation.
That was not required in the end after the woman was found by the Leven Coastguard team, and was deployed back to the west coast.
All emergency services had been stood down by around 7am.
