AN 11-YEAR-OLD boy was saved by the Portland Coastguard Helicopter team after being stranded for 21 hours and sleeping on a rock.

The schoolboy was found wet, cold and hobbling with no shoes on but ‘remarkably unharmed’ after the Portland Coastguard Rescue team found him at lunchtime yesterday.

The boy was reported missing from his Honiton home on Saturday and three friends told police they had lost track of him after he sprained his ankle while rockpooling at 5pm on the same day.

The Beer Coastguard team and officers from Devon and Cornwall Police could not find the schoolboy so the Portland Coastguard was scrambled and discovered him 12 minutes after arriving on a beach near Branscombe during rising tide.

Darren Manser, the aircraft captain of the Portland Coastguard Helicopter Rescue 106, said the boy was lucky to survive as he could have been dragged out to sea or may have fallen from the slippery cliffs.

He said: “We were called and we spotted a lad on his own walking with a limp along the beach. It was clear somebody of that age should not be out there in the rough and wild conditions.”

Mr Manser landed the helicopter on the beach near Dunscombe Cliff and the boy was helped on board.

He was taken to hospital to be checked over but is expected to have suffered no problems other than his sprained ankle.

Mr Manser said: “He’d been out for more than 20 hours and you can’t climb up the cliffs there as they are too steep.

“If he had been washed into the sea he would’ve struggled. There was a risk of hypothermia and a risk of falling if he tried to climb up”

Terry Hoare, station officer at Beer Coastguard, said: “Without the helicopter it would have taken us three or four hours to search that area.”