Cub Scout leader dies on Welsh trip

A Cub Scout leader died during a camping trip to Wales after being swept out to sea in front of a group of young people in her care.

Barbara Pearson, 54, from Smethwick in the West Midlands, is believed to have suffered a heart attack while off the coast of north Wales at Porth Colmon, near Pwllheli. She had been camping in nearby Llangwnnadl with a party of seven Cubs and one other leader. She had been a Cub Scout leader since 1984.

Local coastguards said that Ms Pearson, who was married, had fallen off a rubber ring and into the water, but seemed unable to swim. She was dragged away from shore by the tide.

In an attempt to rescue her, the other group leader – a 62-year-old man – used the hull of a yacht and one oar to row out to the scene, but Ms Pearson was already unconscious when she reached the beach. She was airlifted to hospital in Bangor but was pronounced dead at 10.30pm on Friday.

An RAF Sea King helicopter also took the 62-year-old man to hospital, suffering from hypothermia, and an 11-year-old boy who needed to be treated for shock. Both made a swift recovery.

In another incident, a 19-year-old man survived a 100-ft cliff fall from Helvellyn while out walking in the Lake District with friends. He was airlifted to a hospital in nearby Barrow-in-Furness by helicopter from RAF Valley in Anglesey but his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

Meanwhile police were last night questioning a man after a teenage girl was believed to have plunged to her death in "suspicious" circumstances from a 100ft cliff in Northumbria.

The 17-year-old girl's body was discovered by a passerby yesterday morning on rocks below Souter lighthouse, near South Shields, South Tyneside, at a spot known as Marsden Grotto.

A Northumbria police spokeswoman said: "The death is being treated as suspicious."