Fire crews had to use a stretcher usually used in cliff rescues to carry a casualty six floors up a building.

They were called out at 11pm yesterday when a woman fell and hit her head in a lower floor deep down in the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone.

The woman, aged about 55, had collapsed and badly injured her head in the dining area of the hall’s Channel Suite section.

The entertainment venue is built into the cliff and six firefighters carried her up to ground level using the specialist stretchers for ease of manoeuvrability.

Firefighters had originally been called by the ambulance service who had arrived 40 minutes earlier.

Paramedics sought help after realising it was impossible to get the casualty up those flights of steps on a standard trolley stretcher.

South East Coast Ambulance Service sent two cars and an ambulance to the scene including HART (Hazard Area Response Team).

The Kent Air Ambulance service also attended by road.

The woman had collapsed in a medical episode and suffered a cut head and neck pain when she fell.

Here condition was described as “potentially serious” and she was taken to the specialist King’s College Hospital in London.

A spokesman for the Leas Cliff Hall said: “An incident in The Channel Suite was attended by both the ambulance service and a fire and rescue team to assist in safely getting a guest out of the venue where she could receive further medical attention.

"The incident occurred at the end of the evening and as such other guests who too were exiting the event where asked to remain inside the venue until the incident had been dealt with.”