FOUR divers were taken to hospital by the coastguard helicopters.

Portland coastguard received a call at 1.13pm yesterday to a diver with decompression sickness at West Bay.

The 35-year-old man had returned to shore but had symptoms of decompression sickness and it is believed he made a rapid ascent from a depth of 35 meters.

Due to the Portland Coastguard Rescue Helicopter already dealing with another rescue, the helicopter from Lee On Solent was scrambled.

To cut down on the time delay in the transfer for the diver, the Weymouth RNLI lifeboat, who were about to take part in a demonstration, started towards Portland from West Bay with the diver.

On the way the crew gave first aid in the form of oxygen therapy to the casuality.

The Lee-on-Solent helicopter then took the diver  to Poole recompression chamber.

Meanwhile, the Portland coastguard helicopter was tasked to Chepstow to collect three divers from an inland dive site also with decompression sickness.

Both helicopters got to Poole recompression chamber by 3pm.

A spokesman for the coastguard said the divers will now be assessed by medics at Poole but their condition is not believed to be life threatening.

Elsewhere, coastguards were called after a dog fell on ledges below the lookout tower at St Albans Head.

‘Gizmo’ the dog injured her mouth but was safely recovered by her owner and a passerby.

The incident happened at around 2.40pm on Sunday afternoon.