A DRAMATIC rescue was mounted by emergency services in a bid to get a seriously-ill man to hospital.

The unnamed man, in his seventies, fell ill in his first-floor flat above a shop in Brighton Road, Lancing, yesterday.

Paramedics who were called to the seafront flat decided the patient needed hospital treatment as soon as possible.

But because of his medical condition he needed to be kept as still and as flat as possible and that meant he could be not carried to a waiting ambulance down narrow stairs.

Firecrews from Lancing and Worthing were called to remove a first floor window.

Assistant Divisional Commander Jeff Fullard said: "We had to close the road and use an aerial platform to get the man out.

"We removed the double-glazed window and lifted him on to the platform where the paramedics stabilised him.

"He was then lowered to the ground and put into the ambulance.

"We put the window back in again after he had been taken to hospital. The whole operation lasted about an hour."

A Sussex Ambulance spokeswoman said the man was in a poorly

condition in Worthing Hospital.

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