A 70-YEAR-OLD woman had to be rescued after becoming trapped to her waist in mud while walking her dogs along the Essex coast.

The woman became stranded at the base of the Naze cliffs in Walton-on-the-Naze shortly before noon yesterday while walking her four dogs with her husband.

The coastguard centre at Walton received a 999 distress call from the scene at 11.55am with reports that the woman was rapidly sinking.

Walton coastguard’s cliff and mud rescue team responded to the emergency and were able to free the woman by 12.50pm and place her in the care of the East of England Ambulance Service.

Coastguard watch assistant, Lewis Constantine, said: “The woman was cold, wet and obviously very shaken. The team were able to free her after about an hour and hand her over to paramedics for further medical checks. Her husband and four dogs were all fine.

“In emergences like this the cliff and mud rescue team will free the casualty by digging them out or injecting water around them.”

The ambulance service reported that they were called to the scene at 12.18pm where they treated a woman suffering from breathing problems. She was taken to Colchester General Hospital.

Eyewitness John Popplewell, of Clacton, was walking along the Naze cliffs when he saw the rescue being carried out close to the famous Naze tower and new crag walk project.

“I saw a woman who was up to her waist in mud and was obviously completely stuck,” he said. “The guys from the coastguard were crawling on their bellies with ropes to reach her and pull her out.

“I’ve heard of incidents where people have become trapped in rocks along here, but this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this.

“Things could have been a lot worse. It was lucky she was with someone who could call for help – if she’d still been there when the tide came in she wouldn’t have had a chance.

“I have no idea why she was trying to walk on the mud. There are big signs around the cliffs warning people about where they shouldn’t go.”