A PENSIONER was plucked to safety from the sea after jumping off a wall into Watchet Marina on Wednesday night.

The 67-year-old woman, said to have been drinking, was dragged to the surface from under one of the pontoons after the alarm was raised just before 10.30pm.

Local coastguard Simon Bale, one of a team called out to the emergency, was scanning the area from a pontoon near the marina slipway when he glimpsed a hand disappearing under the water, just to the side of where he was standing.

He grabbed it and managed to drag the woman to the surface, with other team members quickly on the scene to help get her out of the water.

A local doctor, also a coastguard, looked after her until paramedics arrived and took her to Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital.

No details have been released about her condition.

Watchet coastguard station officer Nick Tapp said a Minehead lifeboat crew had been called out but stood down when the woman was found.

Mr Tapp praised the landlord of the nearby London Inn for his quick response in sounding the alarm and calling the coastguard.

"Considering the size of the marina and the darkness, the lady was extremely lucky that Simon Bale was stood on the pontoon and saw the hand before it disappeared and grabbed it," he said.

"This is another example of alcohol and swimming not mixing - especially in the dark."