A crew member of the Lizard Lifeboat who was injured during a “treacherous” rescue at sea during Storm Callum remains in hospital today.

The unnamed crewman had to be airlifted to hospital by coastguard helicopter after the incident that took place on Saturday evening, as the lifeboat was towing a French fishing vessel to Falmouth.

A spokesperson for the national RNLI press office said this morning: “We can confirm that just after 7pm on Saturday an RNLI volunteer crew member on the Lizard Lifeboat sustained an injury during a call-out.

“The volunteer was airlifted to hospital where they are recovering.

“The Lizard Lifeboat returned safely to the lifeboat station.”

The lifeboat had been called out in “treacherous conditions” at 1.40pm on Saturday, to help the French fishing vessel Alf when it suffered complete engine failure roughly 22 nautical miles south south-west of The Lizard.

However, almost seven hours into the tow one of the volunteer crewmembers was injured; the circumstances surrounding the injury are currently unclear.

The fishing vessel and her five-strong crew – none of which could speak English – was passed into the care of Falmouth Lifeboat. Falmouth's all-weather lifeboat, crewed by coxswain Andy Jenkin, Luke Wills, Carl Beardmore, Dave Nicoll, Tom Bird, Elliot Holman and Adam West, took over six miles south south-east of Lizard Point and continued back to Falmouth Harbour.

The inshore lifeboat was then launched to help the all-weather lifeboat once in the harbour. The lifeboat and crew arrived back to the station at around 2.20am on Sunday.

Describing the rescue and subsequent injury, a Lizard Lifeboat spokesperson said: “In treacherous conditions the lifeboat arrived on scene over an hour after her launch, and after assessing the situation a tow was attached and the long slow journey in to Falmouth began.

“However nearly seven hours in to the tow an injury was sustained to a member of crew, forcing the Lizard Lifeboat to hand the vessel over to our colleagues at Falmouth Lifeboat.

“Grateful thanks to everyone involved with the service launch, our wonderful crew and shore crew, Falmouth and Mullion Coastguards, Coastguard Rescue Helicopter and our colleagues at Falmouth Lifeboat Station.”