Plunge student critical
Nov 13 2007 by Chris Robinson, The Journal
A STUDENT who fell 25ft from a Quayside nightclub was critically ill in hospital last night.
Police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the 18-year-old’s plunge outside Baja Beach Club, Gateshead, early yesterday.
The student is thought to have fallen on to the concrete path across mudflats at he rear of the nightclub on Pipewellgate, at around 1am.
Paramedics were called to the scene after the student, believed to be studying at Northumbria University, was found face down but conscious. He was taken to Newcastle General Hospital with critical injuries.
It is believed the parents of the student, who is from Hong Kong, were flying to Newcastle yesterday to be at their son’s bedside.
Firefighters transferred the injured student in a fire boat which ferried him to the north side of the Tyne.
Last night police were still assessing CCTV footage of the bar and the nearby La Riviera Ristorante.
Baja Beach Club manager Jay Parker told The Journal that the club does not have a smoking balcony and believes the student attempted to gain access to the premises after being turned away by door staff.
He said: “We are just co-operating with the police and showing them CCTV.
“We don’t actually know if he has been inside, it looks like he has climbed from La Riviera.
“He hasn’t fallen from a smoking balcony because we don’t have a smoking balcony. Smokers will come out to the front entrance.
“We don’t open upstairs to students on Sunday or Monday evening. By the looks of what we have seen it looks like he has tried to get in but was knocked back.
“It looks like he has climbed over from somewhere else.”
Two crews from Gateshead fire station were involved in the rescue.
Watch manager George Exley said they placed a ladder from the yard of La Riviera Ristorante, next to the Baja, down on to the walkway.
He said: “He was laying across a concrete walkway on the mud flats between the nightclub and restaurant, partially submerged in water.
“They got him out of the water and made sure he had an airway.
“He was then put on the fireboat and taken to the jetty next to the Pitcher and Piano and put in an ambulance.
“He was extremely cold. He is very lucky to have survived the fall and not to have succumbed to the cold and wet or drowned.”
