A TEENAGER from York is lucky to be alive after plummeting 150ft down a cliff on the Yorkshire Coast.

The 17-year-old girl fell near Chimney Hole, near Filey, and spent four hours in the cold at the foot of the cliffs before being rescued by an RNLI lifeboat crew early on Friday.

She was initially believed to be among a group of York teenagers who had booked into the Blue Dolphin holiday park at Filey, but it has since been confirmed she was staying with a friend and the friend's parents.

Lifeboatmen said the teenager had left the park after an argument.

Filey RNLI spokesman John Ward said the girl's parents were in York when they got the news and came straight over to be with her.

“She had a bit of a fall out with friends and went for a walk to cool off. It was pitch black and there was no moon. The edge of the cliff is difficult to make out at the best of times.”

The girl was later able to tell coastguards she fell about 11pm, which was around the time she was reported missing to police.

Officers had to narrow down the stretch of coastline where she might be, to enable lifeboats to conduct and effective search.

She was spotted four hours later by chance. Mr Ward said: “She was so cold after being there for four hours she was barely able to speak. Her parents came through during the night from York to see her in hospital because there was some concern about her condition.

“She was from York but said she was staying with friends on the site, not family.

“She had had a fall out with some of her friends and gone for a walk to cool down and that’s when it happened.”

Humber Coastguard had called in both an all-weather lifeboat and an inshore lifeboat just after 4am yesterday, following a report of a missing female near the cliffs at Chimney Hole.

The girl had suffered head and leg injuries and was also suffering from severe cold.

In complete darkness and at high water, the crew recovered her by stretcher and put her on board an all-weather lifeboat and taken to an awaiting ambulance at Scarborough Harbour.

Mr Ward said: “This was a challenging search and quite a difficult rescue for both crews to undertake, given the conditions. However this is what we are trained to do and I must congratulate both crews on a job very well done."